Future Around & Find Out

You probably know by now that AI is the definition of mediocre. As in: it’s the average of everything it’s been trained on. So how do you get beyond average? How do you build a moat? It certainly doesn’t seem to be via the models. While there are models of the month (hey, Opus 4.6, my new friend!), they seem to be pretty swappable. So, the model ain’t it. But proprietary data (e.g. an AI that knows you really well), yes! Or doing something really hard in the real world (think: Waymo self-driving cars). Maybe via trust and safety (Anthropic is certainly making a play here). Or... how about via amazing design and good taste. Remember when ChatGPT first came out and everyone derided “AI wrappers”… well, maybe a wrapper isn’t so bad, assuming you can differentiate on one or more of the above. Luke Des Cotes is the CEO of MetaLab, the agency famous for designing interfaces, including early versions of Slack and Coinbase, so don’t be shocked when you hear him say that great design can be your moat. MetaLab is working with a host of AI companies (another shocker), including Windsurf (AI + code), Suno (AI + music), Pika (AI + video), and more…, which is why Luke's take on AI surprised me. He's not rah rah. He's pretty judicious actually. Luke has questions about AI's costs and appropriateness for lots of use cases like those involving kids, but mostly he objects to its mediocrity.On this episode we discuss what it takes to go beyond.We also get into:Why vibe-coded software isn't changing the world anytime soonWhy Shopify acquired a design agency right after telling employees to justify their existence against AIHow MetaLab designers are using AI to prototype in hours instead of weeksThe talent market for zero-to-one designers — and why they're harder to find than everLandlines, brick phones, and how parents are fighting back against always-on kidsChapters(01:10) - "It's a race to the mean" (03:10) - "How do you create emotional resonance?" (05:33) - AI companies are burning money (08:44) - Speed to good enough (13:51) - Is the chat here to stay or a temporary fad? (17:43) - It’s hard to find great 0 to 1 design talent (22:28) - Seemingly conscious AI (25:05) - Kids, landlines, and fighting always-on culture (27:21) - Sounds like science fiction, but is here now… Links & ResourcesLuke Des Cotes on LinkedInMetaLabSupport Future Around & Find OutGet the free newsletterAnd consider becoming a paid subscriber and help future proof this thing!Sponsor the show? Are you looking to reach an audience of senior technologists and decision-makers? Email me: dan@modernproductminds.com

Henrik Werdelin is one of my favorite entrepreneurs. He’s founded and incubated several unicorns, most notably BARK, the dog happiness company.Henrik himself is a pretty happy guy — an optimistic guy who likes to ask what could go right? — and on the day we recorded (a few months ago as I was squirreling away interviews for the podcast relaunch), he helped me see through some future of tech gloom I was feeling. I honestly can’t even remember what Trump+tech hellscape we were living through that week, but I do remember that Henrik put me in a better mood. I think he’ll do the same for you, no matter how you’re feeling. 🤗Henrik believes AI could be a massive force for good. That it could bring forth a whole new — a better! — form of capitalism. He writes about this is in his latest book, Me, My Customer, and AI. He points to those (like Henry Ford) who took advantage of electricity by making drastic, not incremental, changes to how the build things. Our conversation pairs nicely with my recent episode with Azeem Azhar, who said the AI winners will “come from odd places”, as they have in previous tech transformations. Here’s more of what Henrik and I cover:His concept of "relationship capital"—the moat AI can't clone—and why the companies that win next will be defined by who they serve, not what they makeThe three components of relationship capital: intensity, community, and durabilityThe "it sucks that" method for finding problems worth solving (he took it to a fifth grade class; the teacher was not thrilled)His vision for the "headless", agentic web, where your startup's MVP is a group of agents, not an appThe wildly practical AI tools he's built just for himself: a custom CRM that searches by vibes not names, a newsletter bot tuned to his quarterly goals, and an agent that handled his visa paperwork while he was in a meetingWhy entrepreneurial skills—agency, narrative, resourcefulness—are the ultimate career insurance, whether you start a company or notThe absolutely ridiculous story of how a prank on a cruise ship led to him meeting his BARK co-founder in a heart-shaped bedChapters(01:43) - Two Futures: AI Bad vs. AI Really, Really Good (05:44) - Why Positivity Is Actually the Riskier Bet (09:05) - Electricity, AI, and the Rise of Relationship Capital (11:12) - The Three Components of Relationship Capital (14:20) - "It Sucks That" — The Best Way to Find a Real Problem (19:22) - The Headless Future and Minimum Viable Agents (22:40) - N-of-One Software: Building Tools Just for Yourself (26:48) - Henrik's Custom Newsletter Bot and AI-Powered CRM (30:59) - Warp, Obsidian, and Letting Agents Loose on Your Computer (34:45) - Entrepreneurial Skills as Career Insurance (36:53) - The Heart-Shaped Bed: How Henrik Met His BARK Co-Founder Links & ResourcesHenrik Werdelin on LinkedInAudos, Henrik’s latest venture where he hopes AI agents trained in his methods can help thousands of entrepreneurs (donkeycorns!) a yearBeyond the Prompt podcast, from co-hosts Henrik Werdelin and Jeremy UtleySupport Future Around & Find OutGet the free newsletterAnd consider becoming a paid subscriber and help future proof this thing!Sponsor the show? Are you looking to reach an audience of senior technologists and decision-makers? Email me: dan@modernproductminds.com

Is AI conscious? Will it be someday? And should we be nice to it now... just in case?This FAFO Friday, Kwaku and I dive into the mind-bending world of machine consciousness.We cover a lot of ground, weaving from the different ways that Luke (co-dependent with R2) and Han (barking commands at C-3PO) treat their droids to whether Pascal’s Wager informs whether we should believe in AI consciousness just in case they do come alive and have been keeping score. (Pascal figured it was the safe bet to believe in God, just in case; maybe we should do likewise?) That’s from us knuckleheads, but we’ve also got a true expert on consciousness. This week I interviewed Daniel Hulme, one of the world’s leading AI researchers. He’s the Chief AI Officer at WPP, the CEO of Satalia (which WPP bought) and just founded and is CEO of Conscium, which is researching AI consciousness, efficiency (he thinks we’re scaling wrong and LLM’s are not the way), and building a platform to verify AI agents are safe. You’ll hear the first five minutes of my interview with Daniel. Daniel was not surprised by Moltbook (the Reddit-style site that AI agents built for themselves). That’s because he’s been putting agents together (in a “primordial soup” as he put it) for decades to observe the wild and wonderful ways they behave and to see if they’d create intelligence.Daniel does not think today’s agents are conscious, but can see a path to it. And he believes that a conscious superintellignece would be safer than a “zombie” one. But mostly he doesn’t want machines to feel pain and suffer. Huh???My brain is still kind of broken from our hourlong chat, which I’m producing now and will be released in a few weeks. For now, enjoy this preview and more from Kwaku and me as we talk about what we expect from machines, whether we want to be one with them, and more…

Everyone's feeling jumpy about AI right now—and for good reason.The hype has been massive. The investment has been astronomical. But where's the actual return?In this episode, Azeem Azhar, founder of Exponential View and advisor to tech leaders and governments, breaks down why the next 18 months are make-or-break for AI. Companies need to prove there's real ROI, not just prototypes launched and tokens spent.We cover:What hard evidence would actually prove AI is working (hint: it's not usage metrics)Who can build a real moat with AI—and why the winners will likely come from unexpected places, as they have in previous tech transformationsThe physical constraints nobody wants to talk about: chips, data centers, power grids, and whether America's infrastructure is up to the taskWhy OpenAI's "ubiquity strategy" might be spreading too thin (and what Anthropic is doing differently)The "pragmatic addicts" problem: we're dependent on AI even though we don't trust itHow Azeem and his team use AI to be more productive, how they automate whatever they can, and why individual contributors are acting more like managers (of AI)Note: This interview was recorded months before the "SaaSpacolypse" (big market drop) of Feb 2026; the analysis is as relevant as ever. Chapters(01:51) - Why the next 18 months are the crucible for AI (04:09) - What hard evidence would actually prove AI ROI (not token counts!) (06:55) - Why it's so hard to measure AI's real impact (09:55) - Who can build a moat with AI? Winners will be in "odd places" (12:56) - Structural data advantages: why Waymo's edge is hard to replicate (14:34) - Coding agents and whether developers will become disillusioned with them (18:21) - Physical constraints: chips, data centers, power, and America's grid problem (21:25) - How the Gulf countries became an unexpected AI hub (28:32) - "Pragmatic addicts": why 75% of Americans distrust AI but use it anyway (32:15) - The narrative of AI can be very unappealing: heaven on Earth or dystopia (35:06) - How Azeem's team uses AI: augmentation vs. automation (40:36) - What should we be talking about besides AI? (44:16) - Sounds like science fiction: What Azeem can't believe is real and here today Links & Resources:Exponential View: https://www.exponentialview.co/Azeem's Boom or Bubble dashboard: https://boomorbubble.ai/Azeem's New York Times piece on America's electric grid challenge: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/28/opinion/ai-electricity-power-plants.htmlMore on the “MIT Study” claiming 95% of AI projects fail that Azeem and I both found to be really poorly done, but that is nonetheless is quoted by everyone: Here’s Azeem tearing the study apart with data: https://www.exponentialview.co/p/how-95-escaped-into-the-worldAnd here's me riffing with Kwaku Aning on it. You know why Azeem liked my take? Because I actually read the thing, unlike ~95% of the writers out there who just quoted that 95% number: https://www.futurearound.com/p/did-anyone-actually-read-that-mit-ai-study-that-made-the-markets-swoon-i-didSupport Future Around & Find OutGet the newsletter: https://www.futurearound.comBecome a paid subscriber and help future proof this thing!: https://www.futurearound.comSponsor the show? Are you looking to reach an audience of senior technologists and decision-makers? Email me: dan@modernproductminds.com

Welcome to the first FAFO Friday!This week Dan and Kwaku dig into:- The uncanny valley that is AI agents and Moltbook—the "Reddit" that agents built for themselves to complain about humans, create a religion, and behave in ways that freak humans out- Anthropic takes aim at OpenAI with a Super Bowl ad that's spicy (for cubs and cougars alike)- We read Claude's "Constitution" and ask: Should AI do what you ask it to do—or what it thinks you _really_ want long-term?- Why Dan switched from OpenAI to Claude (and what he learned about tone, capability, and custom projects)- OpenAI scrambles; the market stumbles; Jensen Huang acts like Sam Altman is "just someone I used to know"- How AEO (AI Engine Optimization) becomes critical in an AI-agent world—and what that means for brand, marketing, and search- Why social media is already past (dark social won)- Elon's pivot to humanoid robots, data centers in space, and other cool things we definitely need- Are we setting higher ethical standards for machines than for tech leaders?Plus: Friendster, TiVo, Pee-wee's Playhouse, and other asides that we hope you get, but maybe you won't ¯\_(ツ)_/¯---Support Future Around & Find Out- Subscribe to the newsletter and support: https://www.futurearound.com- Support the media — support the future — you hope to see. Please consider a paid subscription to Future Around & Find Out. You’ll also get access to exclusive events and the ability to ask questions of upcoming guests. Learn more: https://www.futurearound.com/upgrade

Baratunde Thurston wants us to live well with machines — not for us live under them, nor to be their almighty overlords. Baratunde is a technologist, a comedian, and an Emmy-nominated storyteller who explores interdependence. He gets spicy in this episode. The host of Life With Machines explores how he uses AI — without succumbing to its literal mediocrity — and why he feels he must use AI because otherwise he’s ceding the future to big tech. He also digs into the compromises made in service of building AGI, why strongmen are actually weak, and why CEOs need to stop bending the knee and learn how collective power and strength actually work.But he doesn't just critique—he offers builders a concrete path forward for how we can build a better future , because: "If we build these systems in a good way, there'll be more for everybody, more freedom for everybody and more money for everybody. I do believe that that is possible, but if we do this the wrong way, most of us are gonna suffer and a handful will enjoy their riches in a very secure compound."This episode is a banger. You will be inspired to take action!Chapters:(02:00) - “I don't want to live under machines… I also don't want to be like master of the machine” (06:25) - Creating good goals for AI systems and products (09:00) - “Nothing about us without us” – principles of community-based action (11:10) - How Baratunde stays creative and avoids mediocrity when using AI (14:10) - Building BLAIR, Baratunde’s AI “co-host” and “producer” on Life With Machines (16:50) - “You know nothing, John Snow.” Generative AI systems are not knowledge repositories! (20:00) - Practice what you preach: on Mustafa Suleyman (Microsoft AI CEO) and his warning against building “Seemingly Conscious AI” (24:56) - The AI funding shell game (25:56) - Racing to AGI and the compromises (trust & safety, copyright, etc…) along the way (29:26) - How Baratunde reconciles his unease with his own heavy use of AI (32:40) - “Comedy will not save us; we will save us.” On the role of comedy vs. authority / authoritarians (36:56) - Bending the knee: why Baratunde says tech CEOs need to learn how collective power works (38:56) - What builders — what we! — can do (today!) to exercise our power about how these systems will be built (40:56) - “If we build these systems in a good way, there’ll be more for everybody…” Where to find Baratunde Thurston:Life with Machines: https://www.lifewithmachines.media/Support Future Around & Find OutSubscribe to the newsletter and support: https://www.futurearound.comSupport the media — support the future — you hope to see. Please consider a paid subscription to Future Around & Find Out. You’ll also get access to exclusive events and the ability to ask questions of upcoming guests. Learn more: https://www.futurearound.com/upgrade Sponsor the show?Interested in reaching an audience of senior technologists and decision-makers and aligning with future-forward content? Let's talk! Please email show host Dan Blumberg: dan@modernproductminds.com---Music by Jonathan Zalben

You know what would be awesome? If we could build the future we want — before we muck it up.Future Around & Find Out helps builders think clearly about AI and emerging technologies, grapple with the implications, and decide what to build next.Independent technologist and former NPR journalist Dan Blumberg speaks with founders, makers, and you to celebrate breakthroughs, call BS on the hype, explore how things might go sideways — and how we can steer the future in the right direction.The Webby Awards have honored the show (formerly known as CRAFTED.) as a top tech podcast three years in a row! On Tuesdays, we feature interviews with the builders changing how we work, live, and play. On FAFO Fridays, futurist Kwaku Aning joins Dan for a playful recap of the week in tech, including the amazing, the scary, and the strange.You’ll also hear about innovations that too often get overshadowed by AI, including in deep tech, biotech, fintech, quantum computing, robotics, blockchain, and more.Across it all, you’ll hear sharp takes on what comes next and what builders need to know now. So let’s Future Around & Find Out together! FutureAround.com(Music by Jonathan Zalben)

Here's the full text of this short episode:Hey everyone, Dan here with a quick, exciting update on this show... the name is about to change! In a few days -- on January 20th --  you'll see that this podcast will have new cover art, a new name, a new trailer, and more...I'm not going to reveal that name today, but I do want to share a bit of why I'm changing the name of a show that's been honored 3 years straight by the Webby Awards -- and what is NOT changing.OK, so there are three main reasons for the name change:- the first is very practical: "crafted" is really hard to find in search. I've literally stood next to people who are looking to subscribe and they can't find the show. I swear this wasn't the case when we launched 3yrs ago, but today there are several shows that are either called crafted or something close to it. - the second reason is more personal: the show is mine now -- that wasn't always the case. You may recall the show launched when I was with a high craft software consultancy doing product and client work. The podcast was a surprise! When I left and got full ownership of the show I didn't want to change too many things all at once. Also, I like the name crafted, but -- and this leads to the *real* reason I'm changing --- it no longer fits the show.- crafted is a past tense verb. and it perfectly described the original incarnation of this show, where founders, makers, and innovators would look *back* on things they'd built and we'd do a sort of case study that would help other builders learn from their mistakes and understand how that great product or company they built got so great...So here's the thing... I'm not really doing that sort of case study thing anymore. And I haven't for a while. Creating explicitly educational content is not favorite thing. I'm not exactly a "here is a framework" kind of guy. There are other people who LOVE to create that sort of content and they do a great job with it. So I've been following my interests... For a while now, this show has been much less concerned with teaching case studies and much interested in what comes *next.* * What are the implications of new tech? * How will AI change how we live, work, play, teach our kids...? * Should we get ready to live with humanoid robots? * How are stablecoins changing the world of money? * And what about quantum computers? And what do builders need to know about these things so that we can build a future we actually want? See that part is not changing... the show is still for builders. And you can take that literally: as in people who make software. Or if you want you can take it a bit more broadly: as in: people who putting in the work to build a better future.Sorry if that's a bit cheesy, but it's true. Because while I'm optimistic that we will build an amazing future, there is... uh... a lot going on right now in tech and in the world. And I believe that, together, we have power to steer the future in the right direction. This show will still feature the world's top technologists. And we're going to get into all of these future-forward things. Of course, we'll talk about things they've done in the past, because if we don't learn from history... well, you know how that expression goes. So, get ready to see some new art and a new name -- I'll give you a hint, it'll have the word future in it -- on Tuesday. And I would love your help spreading the word. When the new trailer and website drop, please share them with all your builder friends. So stay tuned...

Travel is one of the most demo-friendly use cases for AI — and one of the hardest industries to actually disrupt.Every AI launch seems to promise the same thing: “Tell me where you want to go, and I’ll plan everything.” But behind the slick demos sits a deeply consolidated industry dominated by platforms, hotel chains, and airlines that optimize for upsell and extraction.Rafat Ali is the founder and CEO of Skift, which bills itself as “the daily homepage for the global travel industry.” We discuss whether AI is likely to have a traveler-friendly effect — or whether the big platforms will just use these new tools of hyper-personalization to extract even more from us. We cover: Whether AI creates new intermediaries—or just strengthens existing giantsWhy no breakout consumer AI travel startup has emerged (yet)Where AI does work in travel today: ops, logistics, and B2B automationWhy travel is a graveyard for “great UX, bad business” startups (RIP HipmunkRafat’s dad hacks for traveling with three kids---Featured voices:Rafat Ali — Founder and CEO of SkiftMe (Dan Blumberg) — I’m the host of CRAFTED. and the founder of Modern Product Minds. HMU if you want to build something great! I love building from zero to one.---And if you please…Share with a friend! Word of mouth is by far the most powerful way for podcasts to growSubscribe to the CRAFTED. newsletter at crafted.fmShare your feedback! I’m experimenting with new episode formats and would love your honest feedback on this and other episodes. Email me: dan@modernproductminds.com or DM me on LinkedInSponsor the show? I’m actively speaking to potential sponsors. Drop me a line and let’s talk.Get psyched!… There are some big updates to this show coming soon!

This week I’m turning the mic over to podcast friends Mike Masnick and Ben Whitelaw, hosts of Ctrl-Alt-Speech, a show about what happens when we talk on the internet, the messy world of content moderation, trust & safety, and the laws trying (and often failing) to keep up.In their first episode of the new year, they build a 2026 bingo card of things that might happen across AI, regulation, and online speech. Not predictions exactly — more a way to follow along and yell “BINGO” as we stumble into another year of deepfakes, age verification fights, and calls to repeal Section 230.You can find links to Ctrl-Alt-Speech on all podcast apps here: https://www.ctrlaltspeech.com/And this — for now — name change coming soon! — is CRAFTED. Sign up for the newsletter and stay tuned at https://www.crafted.fmThe new name and the reasons why are coming in about a week. 

Happy New Year! This is the time of year when people make big changes. So, I'm bringing back my conversation with the co-author of Tomorrowmind. It's a fascinating book and especially relevant at this time of the year. Dr. Gabriella Rosen Kellerman writes that that career trajectories used to be like steamships (full steam ahead), and then they became more like sailboats (lots of tacking), but now we're swirling in whitewater. So how can we stay afloat? How can we flourish? “When you're kayaking in the whitewater. It's hard to get a sense of what could be around the bend, but if you know if what's coming up is a sudden cascade or versus another, you know, set of gentle bumps, or maybe it's a calmer space in the river, it can give you a great advantage.”On this episode of CRAFTED., we focus on PRISM, the five key skill groups that Gabriella says can help you be more successful: Prospection, Resilience, Innovation and creativity, Social support by way of rapid rapport, and Mattering and meaning. Gabriella was until recently the Chief Product Officer at BetterUp, a platform that helps organizations and people level up through a mixture of human and AI coaching. She originally appeared on the show in a two-part episode. Part one is includes more on the tomorrowmind skills and her career path; in part two, she describes how BetterUp builds products and innovated under her leadership. And stay tuned as we employ our own tomorrowminds here at CRAFTED... there are some big changes to the show, including a new name, coming this month!---Featured voices:Dr. Gabriella Rosen Kellerman, Partner at BCG, former CPO of BetterUp, and co-author, with Martin Seligman, of Tomorrowmind Me (Dan Blumberg) — I’m the host of CRAFTED. and the founder of Modern Product Minds. HMU if you want to build something great! I love building from zero to one.---And if you please…Share with a friend! Word of mouth is by far the most powerful way for podcasts to growSubscribe to the CRAFTED. newsletter at crafted.fmShare your feedback! I’m experimenting with new episode formats and would love your honest feedback on this and other episodes. Email me: dan@modernproductminds.com or DM me on LinkedInSponsor the show? I’m actively speaking to potential sponsors for 2026 episodes. Drop me a line and let’s talk.Get psyched!… There are some big updates to this show coming soon!

A guest episode from Famous & Gravy. On each episode, host Michael Osborne and guests look at the life of a famous dead celebrity and ask themselves if it's a life they would've wanted. The show gets into all sorts of things you will not in that person's official obituary or biography. I'm a fan. Here's how they describe today's episode:This person died 2011, age of 56. He dropped out of Reed College in 1972 and once said that taking LSD was among the most important things he ever did. In the early years of his career, his obsession with detail drove colleagues crazy, but later he inspired extraordinary loyalty. In the 1990s he bought a small computer graphics spinoff from George Lucas and built it into Pixar. He told the world he would step down as Apple’s CEO if he could no longer meet expectations — and then he did. Today’s dead celebrity is Steve Jobs.Subscribe to Famous & Gravy in all your favorite podcast apps and at famousandgravy.com---And if you please…Subscribe to the CRAFTED. newsletter: crafted.fmShare with a friend! Word of mouth is by far the most powerful way for podcasts to growSponsor the show? I’m actively speaking to potential sponsors for 2026 episodes. Drop me a line and let’s talk.Get psyched!… There are some big updates to this show coming in January

This week I'm the guest and my friends at Whiskey Web and Whatnot are the hosts. And they're great hosts, because they send their guests a bottle of whiskey before talking web and whatnot...As we head into the holidays I hope you'll raise a glass with us and enjoy this very laid back episode... Chuck and Robbie hosted me a year ago and I love that they got me on tape when they did, because it was just as I was starting to consider making some big changes to my show... Changes that I will announce in late January... so get excited for that! and please subscribe to this here podcsat in your favorite apps, and get the newsletter at crafted.fmHere's how they described the episode:Robbie and Chuck talk with Dan Blumberg about his journey from radio producer to product manager and podcaster. They explore the art of building great software, podcasting essentials, and the changing landscape of podcast platforms. Plus, Dan shares his kayaking adventures and insights on balancing authenticity and growth.And if you please…Subscribe to the CRAFTED. newsletter atcrafted.fmShare with a friend! Word of mouth is by far the most powerful way for podcasts to growSponsor the show? I’m actively speaking to potential sponsors for 2026 episodes. Drop me a line and let’s talk.Get psyched!… There are some big updates to this show coming soonFor more on Whiskey Web and Whatnot...Check ou:t https://whiskey.fmConnect with Robbie Wagner: https://x.com/RobbieTheWagnerConnect with Chuck Carpenter: https://x.com/CharlesWthe3rd In this episode:- (00:00) - Intro- (03:26) - Whiskey review and rating: Woodinville Straight Bourbon- (09:23) - Apple Podcasts vs Spotify- (11:20) - Spotify video vs YouTube- (13:02) - Podcasting audio vs video- (15:24) - Advice on starting a podcast- (19:24) - Equipment requirements for guests on podcasts- (22:15) - Having a pre-interview interview- (26:06) - Social media and podcasting challenges- (27:37) - How to grow your audience- (33:18) - How to make money as a podcaster- (37:28) - Being yourself vs having a persona- (38:42) - Monetizing your podcast- (42:11) - What's missing from RSS- (43:38) - Dan's non-tech career ideas- (45:40) - Podcast recommendations- (49:12) - Dan's plugsLinks- Woodinville Straight Bourbon: https://woodinvillewhiskeyco.com/- Crafted: https://crafted.fm- WNYC: https://www.wnyc.org/- NYT: https://www.nytimes.com/- Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/- Spotify: https://www.spotify.com/- Pocket Casts: https://pocketcasts.com/- IAB: https://www.iab.com/- National Geographic: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/- Shure SM7B: https://www.shure.com/en-US/products/microphones/sm7b- Focusrite: https://focusrite.com/- Shure MV7: https://www.shure.com/en-US/products/microphones/mv7- Elgato: https://www.elgato.com/- AirPods: https://www.apple.com/airpods/- Audio Technica: https://www.audio-technica.com/en-us/- Morning Edition: https://www.wnyc.org/shows/me- Chicago Public Radio: https://www.wbez.org/- Riverside: https://riverside.fm/- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/- Mr. Beast: https://youtube.com/@mrbeast- Docker: https://www.docker.com/- Artium: https://www.thisisartium.com/- Jay Clouse: https://creatorscience.com/- Hark: https://harkaudio.com/- Syntax: https://syntax.fm/- Hard Fork: https://www.nytimes.com/column/hard-fork- Big Technology with Alex Kantrowitz: https://www.bigtechnology.com/- Decoder with Nilay Patel: https://www.theverge.com/decoder- How I Built This: https://www.npr.org/series/490248027/how-i-built-this- Acquired: https://www.acquired.fm/- Smartless: https://smartless.com/- Wondery: https://wondery.com/- Sacha Baron Cohen: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacha_Baron_Cohen- Tim Burton: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Burton- Beetlejuice: https://www.warnerbros.com/movies/beetlejuice- Darknet Diaries: https://darknetdiaries.com/

Looking to fund your startup? If you're new to the process, fundraising can be difficult to navigate. Not only are there a myriad of ways to go about it, but it can be hard to tell whether the tips, tricks, and advice floating around are based on any evidence at all.[This week, I'm turning the mic over to my friends at The Startup Podcast. featuring Carta's head of insights on what you need to know about today's fundraising environment and how AI is affecting valuations, equity, and how companies grow. Here's how they describe this episode...]So, what is the truth?And what are the actual, data-backed insights that can help you choose the best method of fundraising for your own business?Enter: Peter Walker.As Head of Insights at Carta, he has access to, and industry knowledge about, the vast sets of funding data that will help you cut through the noise. Today, he joins Chris and Yaniv in discussing the real data behind startup funding trends in 2025 and the key takeaways you can apply to your own startups.In this episode, you will:Discover why Silicon Valley valuations often hurt founders more than they helpUnderstand how AI startups now account for nearly half of all venture funding, and what that means for non-AI foundersLearn how lean AI-driven teams are reshaping early-stage hiring, with Series A companies shrinking from 25 employees to just 15See why most founders misunderstand SAFE notesExplore why 70% of startup employees never exercise their equityUncover the reasons behind why nearly 40% of startups lose a co-founder within seven yearsGet clarity on founder vesting, equity splits, and why a six-year vesting schedule may protect your company better than fourReframe your goals as a founder: why chasing “life-changing money” isn’t the right reason to start a company---Featured voices:Peter Walker - Head of Insights at CartaYaniv Bernstein - Co-host of The Startup PodcastChris Saad - Co-host of The Startup PodcastMe (Dan Blumberg) — I’m the host of CRAFTED. and the founder of Modern Product Minds. HMU if you want to build something great. I love building from zero to one.---And if you please…TAKE THE SURVEY: It'll just take five minutes and I'll give $100 to the charity of choice for one lucky respondentShare with a friend! Word of mouth is by far the most powerful way for podcasts to growSubscribe to the CRAFTED. newsletter at crafted.fmShare your feedback! I’m experimenting with new episode formats and would love your honest feedback on this and other episodes. Email me: dan@modernproductminds.com or DM me on LinkedInSponsor the show? I’m actively speaking to potential sponsors for 2026 episodes. Drop me a line and let’s talk.Get psyched!… There are some big updates to this show coming soon!

“So if you take any great startup and look backwards, you'll see that 90 percent of their growth came from like 10 percent of the stuff that they tried. So how do you find that 10 percent as quickly as possible?”Matt Lerner has advised hundreds of startups on how to grow. Now, the CEO of SYSTM has written a book called Growth Levers and How to Find Them where he shares his approach. This episode of CRAFTED. is full of actionable advice on how you can grow your products and companies. Matt will tell us about the mindset shift founders need to make from thinking about their products to thinking about their customers needs. We'll talk about jobs-to-be-done (JTBD) style interviewing and why it's such a powerful approach, but also why at first Matt was put off by some of the overly academic language that often goes with jobs. And we'll talk about how you can get new customers to that aha moment as quickly as possible, so they stick with your product. Plus, lots of real talk about founders and the mistakes they make. ---Featured voices:Matt Lerner (Founder and CEO of SYSTM; the book is Growth Levers and How to Find Them)Me (Dan Blumberg) — I’m the host of CRAFTED. and the founder of Modern Product Minds. HMU if you want to build something great. I love building from zero to one.---And if you please…TAKE THE SURVEY: It'll just take five minutes and these surveys are actually really important for podcasters. Share with a friend! Word of mouth is by far the most powerful way for podcasts to growSubscribe to the CRAFTED. newsletter at crafted.fmShare your feedback! I’m experimenting with new episode formats and would love your honest feedback on this and other episodes. Email me: dan@modernproductminds.com or DM me on LinkedInSponsor the show? I’m actively speaking to potential sponsors for 2026 episodes. Drop me a line and let’s talk.Get psyched!… There are some big updates to this show coming soon---Key Moments:(02:10) - 90 percent of growth comes 10 percent of the stuff you try (03:43) - Over-thinkers, under-thinkers, and delegators: the 3 types of founders and the mistakes they make (07:30) - Why the pace of learning is so important (09:41) - Great examples of companies that learn quickly (10:42) - The “locksmith moment” and why you need to find yours (12:35) - Jobs-to-be-Done style interviewing and why it’s so effective (13:57) - How to do a JTBD interview (15:05) - The mindset shift founders need to make from thinking about their product to thinking about the customers’ needs – and why it’s so hard for them to do so (21:40) - Growth Sprints and how to set them up for success (25:23) - Retention and customer activation: still (!) overlooked by most and why it’s so critical (29:16) - Matt writes a blog post on the spot about how working at an oil refinery taught him about startups (31:52) - Writing a book is not an agile process! And the fantastic reception for Growth Levers

** I'd be so grateful if you'd take five minutes and answer our annual survey. It'll help me make the show better for you!  **Hey folks, it's Thanksgiving weekend here in the US and it's the time of year when we think about what we're grateful for, so today I'm re-sharing some words from perhaps the most grateful person I've ever had on the show. Kelsey Hightower is a legendary developer. And he has an incredible story. He went from sleeping in his car to becoming a pioneer in the Kubernetes world, a distinguished engineer at Google, and then... he retired. At the age of 42. Because he wanted to have more impact on the world than he thought he could have by advancing up the career ladder. So here are 15 minutes of my original interview with him, because some of the things he said — not about tech, but about humanity, gratitude, and prioritizing what matters — have really stuck with me.Here’s the full interview, originally released in July 2024. We cover a lot, including how he became so good at live demos, why emotion is the key to great software — and storytelling — and how it’s those “boring innovations” and mindset shifts you need to make as a technologist that will take you from “hello, world” to “hello, revenue.” ---Featured voices:Kelsey Hightower: "Retired, not tired" former distinguished engineer at Google and Kubernetes PioneerMe (Dan Blumberg) — I’m the host of CRAFTED. and the founder of Modern Product Minds. HMU if you want to build something great. I love building from zero to one.---And if you please…TAKE THE SURVEY: It'll just take five minutes and these surveys are actually really important for podcasters. Share with a friend! Word of mouth is by far the most powerful way for podcasts to growSubscribe to the CRAFTED. newsletter at crafted.fmShare your feedback! I’m experimenting with new episode formats and would love your honest feedback on this and other episodes. Email me: dan@modernproductminds.com or DM me on LinkedInSponsor the show? I’m actively speaking to potential sponsors for 2026 episodes. Drop me a line and let’s talk.Get psyched!… There are some big updates to this show coming soon

In this special live Web Summit edition from Lisbon, roboticist, investor, and founder Chris Coomes shares how and why he built X1 Pipeline, an AI platform that evaluates startups the way he would — only much, much faster. It's something he wishes he had when looking for early stage robotics startups while at Google and Amazon. We also talk about the strange humanoid robots wandering the convention hall at Web Summit, why "agents" is a vastly overused word and why (his take) most of the agent startups he saw at the conference won't be around next year. Plus, why plugging things in is hard — and why (my take) that's a good thing, because it means we humans will still have jobs (as plumbers and electricians) in the future. Enjoy this fun episode, recorded live from the "Croissant Studio" on the floor at Web Summit in Lisbon. ---  Featured voices:Chris Coomes — Founder of X1 PipelineMe (Dan Blumberg) — I’m the host of CRAFTED. and the founder of Modern Product Minds. HMU if you want to build something great. I love building from zero to one.And if you please…Share with a friend! Word of mouth is by far the most powerful way for podcasts to growSubscribe to the CRAFTED. newsletter at https://crafted.fm/Share your feedback! I’m experimenting with new episode formats and would love your honest feedback on this and other episodes. Email me: dan@modernproductminds.com or DM me on LinkedInSponsor the show? I’m actively speaking to potential sponsors for 2026 episodes. Drop me a line and let’s talk.Get psyched!… There are some big updates to this show coming soon!

In this special live Web Summit edition from Lisbon, I sit down with Tom Haworth, founder of B13.ai, to talk about why “good enough” AI might actually be one of the most dangerous places we can get stuck.And you’ll hear Tom say it’s time for the leaders of vibe coding platforms (e.g. Lovable, Replit, Cursor) to acknowledge that they’re great when you need to “demo not memo”, but not great (today and maybe ever) at delivering production-grade, secure code. We also make a few detours as we detail a ridiculous week in Lisbon, including:How (shocker!) 90% of the conference was about AIWhy “good enough” AI is not a good place to beWhether we’ll graduate to great AIAI’s ROI now and in the futureWhy it’s still iffy whether AI agents they can be trusted to accomplish complex jobsRobots wander Web Summit, do the Macarena, fall downHow tennis great Maria Sharapova uses (IBM’s) AI How the presumptuous Web Summit’s app prominently suggests we all message Maria… (as if!) Visa wants to help creators monetize (yay! it me!), using Web3 technologies (yes, they said “Web3”; no, I was not expecting to hear a non-ironic use of that phrase)Why self-driving cars are the best robots — and coming soon to more of EuropeHow much Web Summit pampers (and corrupts) the media: I was like a stuffed goose. Hurray for Portuguese custard and other delicacies!How even the beer at Web Summit was high tech---Featured voices:Tom Haworth: Founder of B13.ai, a software consultancy that "empowers non-technical innovators and organizations to build with confidence, delivering market-ready solutions that we design, launch and run."Me (Dan Blumberg) — I’m the host of CRAFTED. and the founder of Modern Product Minds. HMU if you want to build something great. I love building from zero to one.---And if you please…Share with a friend! Word of mouth is by far the most powerful way for podcasts to growSubscribe to the CRAFTED. newsletter at crafted.fmShare your feedback! I’m experimenting with new episode formats and would love your honest feedback on this and other episodes. Email me: dan@modernproductminds.com or DM me on LinkedInSponsor the show? I’m actively speaking to potential sponsors for 2026 episodes. Drop me a line and let’s talk.Get psyched!… There are some big updates to this show coming soon!

 Hey everyone. I've gotten so much interesting feedback on last week's Halloween episode featuring the anonymous CTO saying spooky things about AI and coding agents that I thought I'd share a quick solo voice memo style episode with you. The feedback ranges from people saying he's spot on about the insidious problems that AI coding agents create while others saying "he's holding it wrong." In other words, he's not using AI properly. Listen to this short episode and you'll also hear reaction to his claim that "adversarial AI" is not really a thing and why context and data are so critical. And please please please: take five minutes and complete our annual survey. I have big plans for the show and some new things I'm working on. So I really want to hear from you. And for one lucky survey taker, I will make a $100 donation to the charity of your choice. Here's the survey. Again: it takes just five minutes and these surveys are actually really important to podcasters and sponsors. Thanks so much!And go to crafted.fm to get the newsletter and see all past episodes, including the Halloween Special with the Anonymous CTO on Spooky AI Things (listen to this first before listening to today's episode)

AI coding assistants promise to write your code, speed up your sprint, and maybe even make engineers obsolete. But what if the people building with them every day see something very different?In this special Halloween edition of CRAFTED. — which also marks the show’s third anniversary! — a masked CTO shares what he can’t say publicly: that these tools are powerful, but insidious. In his view, coding assistants are great for auto-complete, but they can’t do what a human engineer does. He says they’re terrible at starting from scratch and will often suggest code that “works in vacuum”, but not in context. And because AI can write so much code, so quickly, it’s hard to catch errors. In short, he sees an increase in short term velocity, at the expense of increased defects and an increasing dependency on systems that are untrustworthy. I want to emphasize that this episode features the experience of one very experienced person. There are obviously others who disagree, who say AI coding agents are incredible, so long as they’re managed well. However, there are also an increasing number of people questioning the sustainability of coding agents — they're incredibly expensive to run — and also how good they are in the first place.For example Andrej Karpathy, the guy who literally coined the phrase "vibe coding" and was early at OpenAI and Tesla, just said publicly on Dwarkesh Podcast that the path to AI agents is going to be a lot slower than people in the industry think it will be. He said coding agents are "not that good at writing code that's never been written before" and that there is too much hype right now about where AI really is, with people in the industry, quote "trying to pretend like this is amazing, when it's not." And he said: "My Claude Code or Codex still feels like this elementary-grade student." Today's guest agrees with Karpathy on a lot of this. Our guest has worked at startups, scale-ups, and big tech companies you've definitely heard of and today he's at a very AI-forward company and using AI coding tools every day. Enjoy this special episode of CRAFTED.! ---And pretty please...!Share with a friend! Word of mouth is how podcasts grow!Subscribe to the newsletter at https://www.crafted.fmShare your feedback! I’m experimenting with new episode formats and would love your feedback on this and other episodes. DM me on LinkedIn or contact me email, via https://www.crafted.fmSponsor the show? I’m actively speaking to potential sponsors for 2026 episodes. Let’s talk!Get psyched!… There are some big updates to the show in 2026!---Key Quotes03:16 The myth of AI replacement: “The idea that AI can actually supplant a software engineer in their current role is basically nonsense.”06:29 Why AI struggles without human input: “If you remove the human engineer from the equation, there’s no place to start from. The AI does not do well when you’re starting from scratch because it doesn’t have the real-world context or the continuous learning required to make that system better.”12:21: The illusion of speed: “Coding assistants help you generate code very quickly. There’s an illusion that your velocity increases. What actually happens is you’re just shipping more bugs to production.”13:30 More code than humans can review: “AI generates so much code that no human can keep that context in their head and review it in a meaningful way. At some point you just have to trust — but who are you trusting? You’re trusting the AI, and the AI cannot be trusted.”14:02 AI & Junior Engineer Hiring: “The narrative that hiring trends have anything to do with AI is absurd. It’s not that AI is replacing junior engineers — it’s that companies are running lean and don’t have the bandwidth to train them.”15:42: Where the AI Bulls and Bears Differ: “Whereas we see flawed systems that aren't ready for primetime [...] they view this as ‘oh, that's, that's insignificant. They will get better almost immediately. It's not a big deal.’ But we've been repeating this cycle for years at this point.”19:50 Where AI Excels: “Where review and revise are part of the process already, that's a really good place for generative AI because you already have a human in the loop.”21:02: What builders need to unlearn “To the extent that people think these things are thinking or reasoning or on any path to AGI at all — they should discard that. These models don’t think. They’re very sophisticated pattern-matching machines, and that’s really it.”