Erik's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erik-braund/Katmai: https://katmaitech.com/In this conversation, we explore how a former music producer from Alaska transitioned into founding a cutting-edge virtual office company, Katmai. Erik Braund shares the unexpected journey that led him from running a production studio to launching immersive video conferencing software at the height of the pandemic.Erik walks us through how Katmai went from stealth mode to serving major clients like Starbucks, and why immersive 3D environments can radically change how remote teams communicate. We also dig into Katmai’s product evolution, the gamification of remote work, and how the company balances enterprise use cases with viral consumer experiences.What you’ll learn:- How Erik transitioned from a creative career to building a tech startup- The origin story and product evolution of Katmai- How immersive virtual offices are reshaping communication for remote teams- Why Katmai built a custom experience for Starbucks and what it taught them about scale- The role of video storytelling in explaining emerging techI hope you enjoy the episode!
Paige's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paigevelasquez/Zilker Media: https://www.linkedin.com/company/zilkermedia/In this episode, we dive into the power of building a personal brand as a tech founder with Paige Velasquez-Budde, co-founder and CEO of Zilker Media.Paige specializes in helping high-performing entrepreneurs build personal brands that drive trust and business growth. In this conversation, she explains why trust is the new currency in business—and how founders can leverage their personal brand to earn it. We cover everything from conducting a brand audit to aligning your content strategy with company goals.Paige also shares real-world stories of tech founders who used their personal brands to drive results—from winning awards and attracting top talent to creating new sales opportunities and partnerships.What you’ll learn:Why building trust is your secret weapon as a founderHow to align your personal brand with your startup’s growth goalsA step-by-step guide to building a brand with limited time and resourcesThree types of content every founder should be creatingThe biggest branding mistakes founders make—and how to fix themIf you’re a startup founder looking to stand out, build relationships, and grow your business, this episode is packed with practical strategies you can start using today.
In this conversation, we dive deep into the world of user-generated content (UGC) and how it’s reshaping the e-commerce landscape with Eulogi Bordas, CEO of Flowbox. Flowbox is a powerful platform helping over 800 global brands harness visual UGC to improve engagement and increase sales.Eulogi shares how Flowbox automates the collection, management, and distribution of social media content to enrich every step of the customer journey—from websites to emails, ads, and more. We also cover Flowbox’s unique European market approach, how the merger with Photoslurp came to be, and how his team aligns outbound and inbound sales strategies to scale efficiently.What you’ll learn: • Why user-generated content is the future of e-commerce marketing • How Flowbox helps brands increase conversions with authentic content • Insights into building a multilingual go-to-market strategy across Europe • How to scale outbound sales with structure and a fighting spiritI hope you enjoy the episode!
In this episode, we explore the revolutionary impact of AI on hiring with Barb Hyman, CEO of Sapia.ai. Barb brings a unique perspective to tech leadership—she’s a non-technical founder with deep HR experience, driven by a mission to transform how companies hire and how candidates experience the process.Barb shares how Sapia took two years to reach product-market fit and eventually secured backing from Macquarie Bank and Woolworths’ venture arm, thanks to the platform’s powerful impact on high-volume hiring.We go deep into how Sapia’s AI eliminates bias, automates hiring decisions, and gives every applicant structured feedback. Barb also opens up about the challenges of selling innovation to large enterprises, her distribution strategy through ATS partners, and why she’s focusing growth in Europe over the U.S. due to regulatory complexity.What you’ll learn:How Sapia’s AI is helping companies hire in under 48 hours, with no human touchThe unique approach to ethical AI and why transparency builds trustHow to qualify enterprise clients to avoid long, unproductive sales cyclesThe surprising power of feedback in improving candidate experienceWhy “CVs need to die” and how competency-based hiring is the futureThis episode is packed with insight for anyone building AI products for the enterprise or rethinking how hiring should work.
In this episode, we explore the journey of Tony Jamous, CEO of Oyster—a mission-driven platform that enables companies to hire talent globally with ease.Tony shares how his personal experiences as an immigrant entrepreneur shaped the vision for Oyster. He dives into the company’s mission to reduce wealth inequality and reverse brain drain by making global hiring as easy as local hiring. With a distributed team of 450+ people across 70 countries, Tony breaks down how they built a hyper-diverse company culture, automated complex employment infrastructure, and navigated the post-pandemic hiring boom.What you’ll learn: • How Oyster helps companies scale remote teams globally • Trends in global hiring and why emerging markets are thriving• Building company culture in a distributed workforce • Sustainable leadership and Tony’s personal growth journey • Lessons from scaling a SaaS business through economic shiftsI hope you enjoy the episode!
In this episode, we dive into the full journey of building and scaling TextRequest—a bootstrapped SaaS company that grew to $18M in ARR and was acquired on its 10-year anniversary.Brian Elrod, CEO and co-founder of TextRequest, shares how he transitioned from the franchising world into tech, what it took to build the MVP, and how he found the right technical co-founder.He also breaks down how TextRequest found product-market fit by shifting from customer service to revenue-focused messaging, and how they scaled through a “bottom-up” strategy targeting franchisees first.We also explore Brian’s approach to customer feedback, how he ran daily demos even years into the business, and how building a strong relationship with Twilio turned into a game-changing distribution channel.What you’ll learn: • The mindset and milestones behind bootstrapping to $18M ARR • How TextRequest turned franchisees into their biggest growth engine • Why staying close to customers can guide your entire roadmap • The art of the sales demo and listening for product insightsI hope you enjoy the episode!
In this episode, we dive into the future of travel infrastructure with Sarosh Waghmar, the founder and CEO of Spotnana. With over two decades of experience in the travel industry, Sarosh is on a mission to completely transform how travel is booked, managed, and experienced—starting with business travel.Spotnana is rebuilding the foundational systems behind the travel industry, creating an open, API-first platform that empowers others to innovate on top of it. Whether you’re booking through a travel agency, a company portal, or a partner app, Spotnana’s infrastructure powers the seamless experiences behind the scenes.Sarosh shares how his obsession with improving travel experiences—rooted in his early days as a travel agent—led him to create Spotnana. He breaks down how the platform works, the major inefficiencies in legacy systems, and why he believes the travel industry is long overdue for change.What you’ll learn:Why travel still lags behind in user experience—and how Spotnana is changing thatHow Spotnana’s “Travel as a Service” platform empowers other companies to build on top of itHow Sarosh fosters innovation and builds a mission-driven culture at SpotnanaIf you’ve ever felt frustrated booking travel, this episode will change how you think about what’s possible.
In this episode of The Tech Founders Podcast, we dive into the incredible bootstrapping journey of Jason Bergenske, founder of MoveItPro, a CRM designed specifically for moving companies.Jason shares how he transformed a family-owned moving business into a $24M ARR software company—without raising a single dollar of venture capital. We discuss the challenges of self-funding a SaaS product, scaling a global team, and how Jason strategically positioned MoveItPro to dominate the market.What you’ll learn:✅ The power of bootstrapping: How Jason self-funded Move It Pro to $24M ARR✅ The marketing and sales strategies that fuel Move It Pro’s growth✅ How leveraging global talent helped scale the business efficientlyThis episode is packed with insights for founders and entrepreneurs looking to scale a business on their own terms.Enjoy the episode! 🚀
Iveda: https://iveda.com/David Ly: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david1ly/What if AI could make your business smarter using the systems you already have?That’s exactly what David Ly, CEO of Iveda, is working on—helping businesses and governments enhance security, efficiency, and automation by leveraging AI-powered video surveillance.In this episode, we break down:✅ How Iveda grew from a two-person startup to a publicly traded company✅ The challenges of scaling AI in security and smart cities✅ Why focusing on real customer problems is the key to AI adoptionIf you’re interested in AI, smart cities, or scaling a tech business, this episode is packed with insights from a veteran founder who’s been in the AI space for 20+ years.
RightMessage: https://rightmessage.com/This Is Personal (Brennan's Book): https://www.amazon.com/This-Personal-Delivering-Right-Email/dp/1637742002:Brennan's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brennandunn/How would your sales change if your email campaigns and sales pages felt as personalized as a one-on-one conversation?That’s exactly what Brennan Dunn and his team at RightMessage are solving—helping creators and SaaS companies boost their sales through email and website personalization. For example, by using personalized sales emails for his course launch, Justin Welsh increased sales by 38%, generating $650K in new revenue in just one week!RightMessage is a website and email personalization tool designed to help businesses segment their audiences and tailor messaging for higher conversions.Expect to learn about:📊 How email segmentation boosted Justin Welsh’s sales by 38%💡 Using a “services arm” to drive SaaS growth without raising capital🚀 Key mistakes SaaS companies make with email marketing—and how to fix themIf you’re a SaaS founder, course creator, or marketer looking to level up your email marketing game, this episode is packed with actionable insights!
Follow Peter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterloving/UserActive: https://www.useractive.io/In this episode of The Tech Founders Podcast, I am talking to Peter Loving of UserActive.In this conversation, we took an unfiltered dive into a design agency business model.UserActive has driven remarkable results for their clients, including bumping the conversion rate from a free trial to paid for one client from 18 to 26 percent. This resulted in the client adding over $330K in ARR in just a few months.Peter provided a ton of value by sharing how he and his team work at UserActive, how they set up client engagements, and their pricing models.Expect to learn about:• What KPIs UserActive targets to increase revenue for their customers• Creating an agency business model that is flexible based on market needs• A multi-channel marketing approach to diversify client acquisitionI hope you enjoy the episode!
Follow Ulf on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ulf-arnetz/Howwe: https://www.howwe.io/In this episode of The Tech Founders Podcast, I am talking to Ulf Arnetz of Howwe.io.This was an eye-opening conversation as Ulf brings forth decades of experience building businesses all over the world.In talking about his current company, Howwe, we can better understand the challenges that large organizations face and how digital transformation is affecting these organizations.Howwe aims to solve the challenges CEOs face in bringing together entire organizations to execute a strategy. This is a monumental task, and it is changing how some of the largest companies in the world work.Expect to learn about: • How executives have traditionally worked in large organizations and how Howwe aims to change that. • Starting as a consulting business to get buy-in for what would eventually become their licensing product. • How Howwe brilliantly built an application used by customers with thousands of employees without needing to customize their product for each customer.I hope you enjoy the episode!
Follow Adam on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/retentionadam/Retention: https://retention.com/RB2B: https://www.rb2b.com/Resources Adam mentioned: Founders Podcast: https://www.founderspodcast.com/The Four Steps to Epiphany: https://www.amazon.com/Four-Steps-Epiphany-Steve-Blank/dp/0989200507In this episode of The Tech Founders Podcast I am talking to Adam Robinson of Retention.com and RB2B.This was a very interesting conversation as Adam is an experienced founder who has brought multiple companies to 7 and 8 figure ARR.His understanding of product and marketing is his strength as an entrepreneur, and in this episode we dove deep into his expertise in these areas.Expect to learn about:What you need to make your outreach campaigns effective.Why customer focused thinking and a great product need to come before everything else.Mistakes early founders make and how to avoid them.I hope you enjoy the episode!
Follow Brett on Twitter: https://x.com/brett1211Kumospace: https://www.kumospace.com/Fonzi AI Recruitment: https://fonzi.ai/Charge VC: https://charge.vc/In this episode of The Tech Founders Podcast I am joined by Brett Martin, of Kumospace, Fonzi.ai and Charge.vc.This was a great conversation, as Brett brings nearly 2 decades of startup experience. You can tell through this conversation that he has been through multiple battles building startups, and we get a glimpse into the mentality that has led to his success. Expect to take away from this episode:- Out of the box thinking that will allow you to find your ideal customers.- A mental framework for your companies Go-to-Market motion.- The future of recruiting top talent for your company in the new age of AI.I hope you enjoy the episode!
Follow Zach on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zachrattner/Yembo: Yembo.aiScourhead: https://github.com/zachrattner/scourheadGrow Up Fast: Lessons from an AI Startup: https://www.amazon.com/Grow-Up-Fast-Lessons-Startup/dp/B0C9SF8JXJResources Zach mentioned during the podcast:Hugging Face: https://huggingface.co/Google Media Pipe: https://ai.google.dev/edge/mediapipe/solutions/guideIn this episode of The Tech Founders Podcast I am joined by Zach Rattner, the CTO of Yembo.Zach brings an interesting perspective to the show as he got an early start in AI, starting his company back in 2016.Since then, Yembo has grown to over 70 employees all over the world, they operate in 20 countries and process tens of thousands of videos per day for their customers.In this episode we will dive into:- A framework for thinking about if your startup idea makes sense for you.- What you need to learn to become proficient in AI.- How to effectively communicate with your customers.I hope you enjoy the episode!
Follow Spencer on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/spencer-dusebout/Aidium: https://thinkaidium.com/Welcome to the fourth episode of The Tech Founders Podcast! This week, I’m joined by Spencer Dusebout, CEO of Aidium (formerly Daily AI). Aidium is a leader in the mortgage CRM space. They raised 19 million dollars to fund their venture, and are building many features that are a first in their niche. Discover how Spencer identified the idea behind Aidium, and take away actionable advice from a serial entrepreneur building great companies.Don’t miss this inspiring conversation full with insights on leadership, company culture, and overcoming startup challenges.
Follow Ayush on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayushg-stanford/Genloop: https://www.genloop.aiWelcome to the third episode of The Tech Founders Podcast! This week, I’m joined by Ayush Gupta, founder of Genloop, a company transforming how enterprises use LLMs (Large Language Models).Genloop believes that businesses should own their intelligence. While tools like ChatGPT offer great potential, they aren't tailored to specific business needs and can be costly. Even more concerning, using such tools can expose sensitive data to third-party providers.That’s where Genloop steps in. By building private LLMs, they give companies the power of advanced AI without sacrificing privacy or incurring high costs.Tune in to learn how Genloop is reshaping enterprise AI with secure, tailored LLM solutions!
Check out Sybill: https://www.sybill.aiFollow Gorish: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gorish/Welcome to the second episode of The Tech Founders Podcast, where we bring you insights from the minds shaping the future of technology. This week, I am joined by Gorish Aggarwal, the CEO of Sybill, a company revolutionizing remote sales by leveraging AI. Sybill recently raised $11 million in a Series A funding round and is setting the stage for massive growth in the coming years. What started as an idea to better understand engagement in Stanford’s virtual classrooms has now evolved into a platform that's transforming how remote sales teams operate.By automating administrative tasks, Sybill is not just saving remote sellers two hours of work every day but is also poised to quadruple their productivity in the coming years. Discover how Gorish and his team are leveraging AI to empower remote sales teams and bring their own unique perspective to remote sales.Get ready to be inspired by the journey of turning a simple classroom idea into a multi-million dollar enterprise. Don’t miss out!More episodes at https://techfounderspodcast.co
Welcome to the inaugural episode of the Tech Founders Podcast, where we dive deep into the journeys of those at the forefront of innovation and entrepreneurship in technology.In this episode, we're thrilled to have Declan Goncalves, a serial tech founder known for turning visionary ideas into successful startups.Join us as Declan shares his remarkable journey through the tech landscape, from the early days of bootstrapping his first venture to receiving YC funding and scaling a startup to tens of thousands of users. Bringing together experience from being a founder of several startups, Declan offers a wealth of knowledge and firsthand insights on overcoming challenges, scaling businesses, and navigating the ever-evolving tech ecosystem.Listeners will gain invaluable advice on what it takes to succeed in the competitive world of tech startups, including:- Key strategies for early-stage growth and development- How to get started with your first startup- The differences between bootstrapping and receiving funding for your startup- What it takes to build a successful startupWhether you're an aspiring entrepreneur, a seasoned founder, or simply fascinated by the intersection of technology and business, this episode is packed with inspiring stories and actionable tips to help you on your journey.Don't miss out on this exclusive conversation with Declan Goncalves, as we explore the path to tech startup success. Tune in now to the Tech Founders Podcast for your dose of inspiration, insight, and innovation.