Chaos To Clarity

In this episode of Chaos to Clarity, host Eric Weiss sits down with Ryan Rusnak, Co-Founder and CTO of Airspace, one of San Diego’s fastest-growing logistics tech companies.Ryan shares how Airspace built a $100M business around time-critical shipping, moving everything from organs for transplant to parts for grounded airplanes. He reveals how the team uses AI and machine learning to optimize routing in real time—saving lives, money, and minutes.This episode dives into:The story behind Airspace and its life-saving logistics technologyHow to build a tech-enabled logistics startup from zero to scaleWhy trust and delegation are essential for growing your engineering teamLessons in leadership, hiring, and managing growth from startup to global scaleThe role of AI and neural networks in transforming traditional industriesWhether you’re a startup founder, CTO, or just fascinated by the intersection of AI and logistics, this conversation will inspire you to think bigger about what technology can achieve when the stakes are real. Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit https://chaostoclarity.io/

Episode Summary:In this episode, Eric Weiss sits down with Andy Ballester, serial entrepreneur and co-founder of GoFundMe and EyePop.ai, to unpack the highs, lows, and lessons of building category-defining startups. Andy shares how an early college job at a software startup sparked his passion for technology, why he bootstrapped GoFundMe into a global fundraising platform, and what it took to scale from two founders to a household brand that processed over a billion dollars in giving.Andy also reveals the insights behind his newest venture, EyePop.ai, a computer vision platform making AI accessible to developers and businesses across industries. He explains how modern visual intelligence can turn everyday images and video into actionable data—from analyzing pickleball swings to inspecting drone footage of rooftops—and why speed, lean teams, and clear product design are essential in today’s fast-moving AI landscape.Listeners will learn:How GoFundMe evolved from a simple savings concept into the world’s leading personal fundraising site The technical and UX hurdles of early fintech and how Andy’s team overcame them Why bootstrapping worked for GoFundMe but venture funding is key for AI startups The critical role of co-founders, emotional resilience, and a “stoic CEO” mindset in surviving the startup grind Practical advice for founders on team building, product iteration, and staying ahead of AI’s rapid innovation curve Whether you’re a first-time founder, a product leader, or an investor tracking the next wave of AI infrastructure, Andy’s journey offers a masterclass in startup strategy, growth, and perseverance. Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit https://chaostoclarity.io/

Key TakeawaysFinding conviction when the market says no. SOCi was built for multi-location brands that initially rejected the idea of managing thousands of local pages. Afif explains how he stayed the course, found early adopters, and survived until the market caught up.Scaling through pressure cookers. Hyper-growth exposed broken systems, forced painful pivots, and required letting go of two-thirds of sales opportunities to improve retention.Customer success over sales growth. Afif shares why focusing on customer success—hiring seasoned leaders and building award-winning CS systems—was the key to sustainable expansion.Applied AI in marketing. Beyond generative content, SOCi is developing “applied AI” to manage end-to-end marketing workflows across thousands of locations, giving teams back thousands of hours.Culture as scalable DNA. SOCi’s values—Selflessness, Overachievement, Customer Centricity, and Innovation—guide hiring, recognition, and leadership at every stage of growth.Leadership principles. Hire people better than you, empower them, and balance founder involvement with trust. Culture will evolve as you scale, but clarity of values keeps the organization aligned.Why ListenWhether you’re an early-stage founder or leading a growth-stage team, this conversation is a masterclass in resilience, strategy, and culture-driven leadership. Afif’s journey shows how to navigate rejection, make data-driven pivots, and build software—and teams—that scale.👉 Listen now to learn how to build conviction, lead through pressure, and turn a startup into a unicorn. Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit https://chaostoclarity.io/

They dive deep into:The evolution of the San Diego startup scene since 2013 The power of founder-led communities and grassroots events Why curated connections matter more than vanity metrics Lessons from Startup Week, EvoNexus, and Startup San Diego The rise of angel investing groups like Interlock and Rising Tide Partners Challenges San Diego faces compared to Silicon Valley and how to overcome them If you are a founder, investor, or community builder looking to understand the future of San Diego tech, this is a must-listen conversation.Key Topics & TakeawaysStartup Communities Framework: Why Brad Feld’s Startup Communities is Neal’s “startup bible” Investing in People, Not Just Companies: Neal’s philosophy of betting on founders first From Coffee Meetings to Community Hubs: Why San Diego needs physical spaces for collisions, not just coworking desks The State of San Diego Startups: Momentum, challenges, and opportunities post-COVID Founder-Led Movement: How entrepreneurs can create “gravity wells” to attract investors, talent, and resources Event Co-Founders: How to keep community events consistent and impactful without founder burnout Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit https://chaostoclarity.io/

This episode continues the conversation with Jason Corso - Professor of Robotics and EECS at University of Michigan and Co-Founder/Chief Science Officer at Voxel51 - a Series A AI software company that enables machine learning and computer vision scientists to rapidly curate and experiment with their datasets in order to build higher performing machine learning systems.AI platforms have been a game changer for productivity and mapping, but it’s not yet at the level of flexibility that would eliminate most of the grunt work. Eric and Jason speak on how they’d like to see AI platforms collaborate and get to a point where they not only map out your tasks, but also do a lot of the preliminary work - just like an assistant would. Generalized and personalized AI assistants are the next big step that would vastly increase the value that executives get from utilizing AI in their daily workflow. Eric speaks on how he’s currently using ChatGPT to some level of success, but also mentions something we’ve all felt - the need for a system that compartmentalizes workflows, remembers information and draws custom next steps from previously established context.Everyone’s excited for what’s next for generative AI. Even though closed models are currently performing better than open-source, this situation will most likely change with time as more tools become available. Jason breaks down annotation strategies and speaks on how the idea of just taking data and training your own models might not be the most efficient way to drive innovation as an AI startup. There’s a lot of work in understanding how to create good datasets, which is something that most companies are missing.Tune into the full episode to learn more about the potential of AI!HIGHLIGHTS:00:00 Utilizing Microsoft AutoGen04:04 What’s next for AI assistant platforms?  09:03 The problem with ChatGPT 12:47 What’s the next step in AI tool development?17:31 The problem with questionable datasetsConnect with Jason - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-corso/ Check out Voxel51 - https://voxel51.com/ Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit https://chaostoclarity.io/ Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit https://chaostoclarity.io/

Today’s episode welcomes Jason Corso - Professor of Robotics and EECS at University of Michigan and Co-Founder/Chief Science Officer at Voxel51 - a Series A AI software company that enables machine learning and computer vision scientists to rapidly curate and experiment with their datasets in order to build higher performing machine learning systems.Jason is a builder by nature. During his academic career he started to ask himself - “can I have a bigger impact on the world?”, which led him to meet his co-founder and start Voxel 51. Both of them had a passion for machine learning and an ability to write code - which is how his transition from academia to consulting began. In the early days they received a grant which worked out well and funded them through the process of building their first service. Building a service, however, was never part of the plan. Once they realized that the limitations of the grant won’t enable building a product, they sought out venture capital. This venture capital boost allowed them to build out their open-source platform which has more than 2 million downloads as of this episode. Jason speaks on the early success stories of Voxel51. One of their earliest clients took just 1% of their data and in a few hours they were able to look at the data visually, which enabled them to figure out where mistakes were made. Data quality is more important than the sophistication of the system, and Voxel51 enables their clients to find where inefficiencies live.Even with a great system - human input is still needed when it comes to quality control. Jason speaks on how humans filling in the gaps when the system is less certain is highly effective - even though it doesn’t scale. Eric speaks on how experienced data scientists develop an almost 6th sense when looking at data and understanding that something is wrong and a change is in order. Check out the full episode to learn more on how to approach utilizing data! HIGHLIGHTS:03:41 Building a service-based business05:21 When do you utilize Voxel51 in the development process?09:52 Quality or quantity - what’s more important for your data?15:05 The importance of human pattern recognition 18:03 New applications of AI toolsConnect with Jason - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-corso/ Check out Voxel51 - https://voxel51.com/ Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit https://chaostoclarity.io/ Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit https://chaostoclarity.io/

This episode continues the conversation with Raj Verma, CEO of SingleStore - a Series F startup that provides a cloud-native database built with speed and scale to power real-time applications.Eric and Raj discuss the implications of openly available AI. On one hand, a ton of good will be brought into the world. On the other hand, every new technology comes with its caveats and even the simplest things like booking a flight online can lead to malicious actors scamming people out of their hard earned money.Eric recalls his work with an executive at OpenAI, where he had a sneak peak into what we now know as ChatGPT, and their team was by no means blind to the possibility of their tech being used for the wrong reasons. The team at OpenAI had factored this in, and are cognizant of the fact that they are responsible for safety regulations for their software.Raj speaks on AI regulation, and believes that the biggest governments in the world will regulate AI usage appropriately, as none of them are interested in AI-supported crimes. This doesn’t mean that all regulation will be the same, as global superpowers have differentiating viewpoints in their social and governing philosophies, which could cause problems down the line.Change happens faster than we think. Raj uses the analogy of how fast cars replaced horses in the early 1900’s, when talking about how quickly the AI revolution can take place. Predictions are typically made drawing comparisons to the past, but as it’s been proven time and time again - the future comes quicker than we can possibly imagine, and Raj sees a similar pattern with how AI is disrupting us right now.Tune into the full episode to learn more wisdom about the upcoming AI revolution!HIGHLIGHTS:00:00 What’s the true value of AI?03:48 Does tech democratization lead to good or evil?07:02 AI Regulations on social media 09:53 The potential destructiveness of AI12:41 GameStop and Silicon Valley Bank 16:59 Change happens faster than we thinkConnect with Raj - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajvermaceo/Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve! To reach out to Eric, visit ChaosToClarity.io Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit https://chaostoclarity.io/

In this episode, Eric is joined by Raj Verma, CEO of SingleStore - a Series F startup that provides a cloud-native database built with speed and scale to power real-time applications.Raj speaks on their journey of finding the problem in their market. They saw how inefficient it is to navigate between multiple data platforms and that data is often too fragmented and spread between too many sources to ensure quality conclusions due to there being too many points of failure. Big tech has a huge data advantage over mid-market competitors due to the fact that leveraging data is super expensive. SingleStore is on a mission to democratize data utilization in smaller companies, which also reflects in their client base - SaaS companies between $10-300 million ARR see the most benefit from implementing SingleStore, and their best performing segment are go-to-market tools, which is a motion that historically doesn’t rely on data as much as other parts of the business.Generative AI is changing the way companies utilize data. Raj mentions that in the digital age, generative AI has been in the making for decades. He sees AI being discussed in 3 buckets - first one being that it will help automate easy work, second being that hard tasks will become easy, and third being that the impossible will become possible. He predicts that 50% of software jobs will become automated. Raj is fascinated by what it means for the impossible to become possible. He believes that science will be the sector that will see the most growth from AI, and he speaks on how AI is changing the way we approach medicine. Tune into the full episode to learn more about how SingleStore is democratising data!HIGHLIGHTS:00:00 What does SingleStore do?02:06 The problem SingleStore saw in the market05:38 How agile teams suffer due to inefficient data tools09:21 What keeps incumbency in place? 12:47 How early stage startups can leverage their data16:42 How generative AI is changing the world21:40 AI implications in medicine Connect with Raj - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajvermaceo/ Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve! To reach out to Eric, visit ChaosToClarity.io Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit https://chaostoclarity.io/

Today’s bonus episode follows the 2 part episode with Shaun Savage, San Diego based Founder and CEO of GoShare - a cloud based logistics platform that connects truck owners with businesses and individuals to provide on-demand delivery & moving services.An organisation with a high level of trust also has a high level of autonomy, which creates scalability. Once you build a culture of trust, your team can run seamlessly and avoid bureaucracy and micromanagement.  In order to get to that point, psychological safety is a must - which means you need to make sure that your people don't hesitate to share their opinions and viewpoints because they know they won't be punished for having the wrong idea.  Eric recommends "The SPEED Of Trust", a book by Stephen M. R. Covey, which shows how trust—and the speed at which it is established with clients, employees, and all stakeholders—is the single most critical component of a successful leader and organization.In order to create trust in the marketplace, you need to have a customer service standard that goes above and beyond to please customers and settle disputes in a way that makes the customer feel heard, appreciated, and ultimately a winner.When it comes to investment, trust is a huge factor. Trust is built over time, which means you should always give a reasonable amount of time for processes like due diligence, otherwise you'll never secure venture capital.Check out the full episode to learn how to build trust in your business!Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit chaostoclarity.io Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit https://chaostoclarity.io/

This episode continues the conversation with Shaun Savage, San Diego based Founder and CEO of GoShare - a cloud based logistics platform that connects truck owners with businesses and individuals to provide on-demand delivery & moving services. Shaun and Eric discuss the importance of customer interviews. Even though this activity might look inefficient on paper as it does not scale, there’s still no substitute to sitting down and having a real conversation about the quality of the service you provide. In the case of GoShare, both the drivers and the end users are customers, so Shaun makes sure to listen to both sides of the coin.In 2024, fundraising is a hot and complex topic. Shaun has raised $8,000,000 in capital so far, and he recalls that SEO was a big reason why they secured their initial round of funding. The mindset of the investors was to research existing companies that solve this problem and figure out if it makes more sense to build this type of service from scratch, or to invest in a company that’s already a few steps ahead. They evaluated GoShare and a few competitors and chose to go with Shauns company. This took about 6 months of relationship building to close the first lead investor, which led to a $1.2 million round. As GoShare evolves, so have the scaling challenges. Balancing supply and demand in the marketplace with an Uber-esque business model is always a big topic. Many of the sectors that GoShare serves are seasonal businesses, which means filling orders is a challenge year-round, especially due to the saturation of their market. The way they’re solving this challenge is by always analyzing their market and having the data to stay one step ahead while also accounting for the worst.  Tune into the full episode to learn how to secure venture capital! HIGHLIGHTS:00:44 The Importance of Customer Interviews03:05 Fundraising in 202408:32 The Angel Investor Strategy 10:59 GoShare’s Scaling Pains 13:34 Leadership Challenges 17:14 Managing Remote Company Culture Connect with Shaun - https://www.linkedin.com/in/shaunsavage/ Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit ChaosToClarity.io Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit https://chaostoclarity.io/

In this episode, Eric is joined by Shaun Savage, San Diego based Founder and CEO of GoShare - a cloud based logistics platform that connects truck owners with businesses and individuals to provide on-demand delivery & moving services. Shaun’s entrepreneurial journey began when he started a house painting business with a few friends from college. One of the biggest challenges he had at the time was making sure that materials were delivered to the painting site. At the time he wished for a service that ultimately became GoShare - a way to have heavy things delivered on-demand.GoShare was not the first company to go after their market. The thing that differentiated them was their laser focus on making communication between drivers and companies seamless, which is how they got to serve 10’s of thousands of customers. That led them to having conversations with large retailers, which opened their eyes to the fact that there’s a whole market out there that is currently outsourcing their delivery process to non-tech companies, which led to slow turnaround times and a ton of frustration.There were plenty of growing pains along the way. In the early stages, a lack of trust was a huge problem. Shaun shares a story where he contacted a client to chat about their service, and the person on the other line said that they were thinking they’ll never see the mattress again. In later stages, the classic pain points of acquiring funding and building the right systems all came into play.Tune into the full episode to learn more about the journey of GoShare!HIGHLIGHTS:00:00 Shaun Savage’s Entrepreneurial Journey 03:05 The Trap Of Getting Too Involved 07:11 How GoShare Approached Their Market 15:36 The Growing Pains Of GoShare20:04 Advanced Trust Tactics 22:10 Navigating Around MistakesConnect with Shaun - https://www.linkedin.com/in/shaunsavage/ Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit ChaosToClarity.io Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit https://chaostoclarity.io/

Today’s bonus episode follows the 2 part episode with JJ Parker, a serial entrepreneur who runs Tightrope Media Systems, Carousel Digital Signage and most recently Screenweave, a company that unblocks work by empowering people to communicate asynchronously with video.Systematic self improvement and self reflection are two aspects of entrepreneurial development that often get glossed over, and historically don’t exist outside of engineering teams. Bringing these Agile principles into other departments has helped Eric’s clients reach outcomes that previously seemed unattainable.Eric has implemented the retrospective workflows into all types of departments and across a variety of sectors, and those core principles have been impactful across the board.During the episode with JJ Parker they also discussed the importance of the wisdom that only experience brings. When you figure out how to apply leverage to everyday business problems, it unlocks a new level of efficiency that brute forcing simply does not match.Check out the full episode to learn more on how to improve as a founder! Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit chaostoclarity.io Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit https://chaostoclarity.io/

This episode continues the conversation with JJ Parker, a serial entrepreneur who runs Tightrope Media Systems, Carousel Digital Signage and most recently Screenweave, a company that unblocks work by empowering people to communicate asynchronously with video.Something that most entrepreneurs learn through trial and error is the importance of leverage and efficiency. While it’s completely normal to attach yourself to every process in your company at the early stages, it’s highly inefficient to do so and will often lead you off the growth path. The sooner you learn how to apply leverage and successfully deleage, the quicker you’ll get on a sustainable path of growth and prosperity.JJ attributes self awareness as the key to better performance. His path to true self development started with an initiative to help his team understand themselves better. They implemented new feedback mechanisms and coached them on better ways to communicate, which also led him to start a coaching business. These initiatives made him look inward and helped him figure out the inner workings of his mind.When it comes to leadership principles, JJ focuses on trust and autonomy. That means being clear with what you expect from your employees, holding them accountable and trust that they’ll get the job done. He’s not a fan of the return-to-office strategies that are now being pushed by many companies, as it can destroy the existing culture and make you lose your A+ players.Company Culture is formed and molded, which means that unless you’re very purposeful about how you raise your company culture, you might end up in an unproductive environment that doesn’t fit your vision.Tune into the full episode to learn more on how to build your business the right way!HIGHLIGHTS:00:00 Entrepreneurial Wisdom04:45 How To Find More Leverage07:09 The Value Of Coaching And Reflection11:15 Team Feedback Matters15:07 JJ’s Leadership Principles17:25 The Secret To Great Company Culture Connect with JJ - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jj-parkerDon't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit ChaosToClarity.io Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit https://chaostoclarity.io/

In this episode, Eric is joined by JJ Parker, a serial entrepreneur who runs Tightrope Media Systems, Carousel Digital Signage and most recently Screenweave, a company that unblocks work by empowering people to communicate asynchronously with video.JJ took an unconventional path to entrepreneurship. He’s an art and design graduate who noticed a market gap in early tech back in the 90’s. Early in his career, JJ had to train school employees how to use video bulletin software, which is when he realized that the true problem behind why people use software inefficiently is an issue of design, not an issue of user intellect, and that’s the first problem he went on to help solve.Eric and JJ discuss how entrepreneurs often try to solve a problem that they themselves have not encountered, which leads to a ton of misalignment between the founder and the end-user. A more effective path towards building a successful business is to find a job early on that nobody wants to do, and figure out a way to solve those tasks by innovating the workflow or the available tools.Running multiple businesses simultaneously is no easy task. When it comes to growth, JJ doesn’t believe in putting all of your eggs in one basket and investing 100% in growing a singular enterprise. He much prefers working on a variety of projects at the same time, although he admits that when you're at an early stage, you need to give your full attention to a singular cause until the business becomes more mature. Tune in to the full episode to learn what it takes to become a serial entrepreneur!HIGHLIGHTS:00:00 JJ’s Path To Entrepreneurship04:42 The A-HA Moment 10:46 The Various Businesses JJ Has Started13:47 The Growing Pains Of A Serial Entrepreneur 16:25 When Do You Let Go?Connect with JJ - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jj-parkerDon't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit ChaosToClarity.io Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit https://chaostoclarity.io/

Today’s bonus episode follows the 2 part interview with Davit Baghdasaryan, Co-Founder & CEO of Krisp - a software tool that maximizes the productivity and impact of every conversation by eliminating noise distractions,increasing the fidelity of voice communication, and transcribing and synthesizing the most relevant details and analytics from every voice interaction. Many founders build their technology and only then try to figure out what industry it’s best applied to. In the case of Davit, they had 24 different use cases they were trying to present to the market, which caused them to struggle with their business model. They had to learn how to say “no” to alternative segments and use cases and pursue becoming market leaders in their niche. Diluting your positioning and strategy might work once you’re an established brand with tons of resources to burn, but as a startup it’s a losing strategy that will often steer you away from a winning strategy. In today's market people expect their products to be highly personalized and catered to their problems. Even if you have the best technology in the world, by sacrificing your positioning and refusing to niche down, competitors who get it right will run laps around you because their product is an exact fit for solving an individual problem.Tune into the full episode to learn how to approach GTM as a technical founder!Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit ChaosToClarity.io Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit https://chaostoclarity.io/

This episode continues the conversation with Davit Baghdasaryan, Co-Founder & CEO of Krisp - a software tool that maximizes the productivity and impact of every conversation by eliminating noise distractions,increasing the fidelity of voice communication, and transcribing and synthesizing the most relevant details and analytics from every voice interaction. Krisp has grown significantly throughout COVID and beyond. They saw a huge market opportunity with call centers where the issue of noise cancellation is truly prevalent and expensive, which helped them grow through word of mouth. Throughout this growth spurt they’ve been able to add a plethora of new features, and now they’re moving into the lucrative meeting assistant place. The next feature they’re working on is accent translation, which automatically translates the speaker's accent to the listeners accent to help break through accent barriers.COVID wasn’t a walk in the park for Davit. They had built a multiple org structure, which caused the company to overhire. Without alignment and verticalization they were becoming much slower to act and the environment became too bureaucratized to work at the level of efficiency that is required from a SaaS startup. They made a big pivot and moved back to a model that brought them their initial success and allowed them to return to scaling. Davit is a big believer in the fact that every person you hire adds overhead to your business, and even though you need to make the right hires to grow - hiring more people makes your processes run slower until they’ve been with you for a while. Your goal is not to just hire, it’s to create more customer value. Check out the full episode to hear the scaling story of Krisp!HIGHLIGHTS:00:00 How To Win At Differentiation 07:02 Scaling Challenges And New Technology 12:05 The Root Cause Of Market Corrections15:26 Building Multiple Lines Of Business17:22 Making The Right Hires Connect with Davit - https://www.linkedin.com/in/davitb/Check out Krisp - https://krisp.aiDon't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit https://chaostoclarity.io/ Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit https://chaostoclarity.io/

In this episode, Eric is joined by Davit Baghdasaryan, Co-Founder & CEO of Krisp - a software tool that maximizes the productivity and impact of every conversation by eliminating noise distractions,increasing the fidelity of voice communication, and transcribing and synthesizing the most relevant details and analytics from every voice interaction. Davit’s background is in engineering. If you asked Davit if he plans to become an entrepreneur a year prior to founding Krisp, he would have said - no way. But when he took the plunge, it didn’t take long for him to fall in love with it and unlock his hidden calling. Startup life is much more catered to those who have a growth mindset. Every year in a startup is a career in an enterprise when you look at how much intellectual velocity is needed to succeed and how quickly things change. Often those who leave enterprises to found startups have a hard time adjusting to the new paradigm, and on top of that you’re more than likely to leave a lot of money on the table. Davit left Twilio to start Krisp right at the time when Twilio was growing at a rapid pace, so he had to temporarily say goodbye to a lucrative role - but it worked out for the best.The problem in the market that Davit saw came from his role at Twilio. He was traveling to his home country of Armenia and taking virtual meetings outside. The problem is that there’s a ton of noise that disrupts the natural flow of virtual meetings. They gathered a team of scientists and took a machine learning approach to create their first prototype. 2 years in they had a production ready piece of technology and they shipped it.Check out the full episode to hear the journey of Krisp!HIGHLIGHTS:00:00 Davit’s Journey To Entrepreneurship 04:15 Is It Worth It To Take The Risk?09:38 The Problem In The Market13:39 Early Pains Building Krisp17:35 What VC’s Want To SeeConnect with Davit - https://www.linkedin.com/in/davitb/Check out Krisp - https://krisp.aiDon't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit FullCycleProduct.com Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit https://chaostoclarity.io/

Today’s bonus episode follows the 2 part episode with Jan Arendtsz, Founder & CEO of Celigo - an iPaaS platform that simplifies the integration of business applications and data sources in the enterprise.During those two episodes, Eric and Jan discussed what it takes to truly grow a platform business. Many founders want to go after a broad market and grow their company into an industry staple. As a startup, the likelihood that you’ll succeed increases if you find a narrow market and focus on an underserved niche.The way Jan did it was he scaled a consultancy first and foremost to 100+ members which allowed him to learn everything there is to know about his target market and build products based on the desired outcomes of their ideal client profile.Check out the full episode to learn more on how to create the next big platform!Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit FullCycleProduct.com Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit https://chaostoclarity.io/

This episode continues the conversation with Jan Arendtsz, Founder & CEO of Celigo - an iPaaS platform that simplifies the integration of business applications and data sources in the enterprise.In the previous part we established the story of how Celigo had to make some hard decisions that were ultimately for the best. In more recent history, they had to pivot to a new product even after they found what was supposedly working. Jan’s reason is simple - the Total Addressable Market(TAM) was too small to fulfil his ambitions, so they started working on a model that would work across a variety of verticals. Celigo really built their platform by the book. Starting out with years of consulting experience to understand their market, then building a few platform iterations that were both scrapped and kept, finding product-market fit, increasing their TAM, and trying to solve larger problems as they scale. This approach has made them true experts of both their market and their product, and allowed them to scale while maintaining longevity in the market.Now they’re focused on revamping their go-to-market strategy and making sure they’re disciplined with targeting the right type of client. A very difficult but necessary step when scaling is figuring out which customers you’ve outgrown and letting go, as the drain that a customer who’s no longer a great fit brings onto your team can significantly lower efficiency and morale.When asked about his leadership principles, Jan focuses on being fair and consistent - towards both his employees and customers. He’s also evolved to be a great listener, which is a very important trait in a leader. Tune into the full episode to learn more on how Jan built a platform that scales!HIGHLIGHTS:00:00 The Inflection Point07:01 Why Most Platforms Fail09:43 New Challenges With Scale13:07 Achieve True Focus15:20 Jan’s Leadership Principles18:22 Learning to Let GoConnect with Jan - https://www.linkedin.com/in/janarendtsz/Check out Celigo - https://www.celigo.com/Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit FullCycleProduct.com Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit https://chaostoclarity.io/

In this episode, Eric is joined by Jan Arendtsz, Founder & CEO of Celigo - an iPaaS platform that simplifies the integration of business applications and data sources in the enterprise.iPaaS stands for Integration Platform as a Service, which is a new term for an industry that’s been around since the 90s. Their predecessor was the ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) model which was led by companies like Informatica before the cloud model became standard. Jan’s path to entrepreneurship began with him working as a software engineer for a couple of years and quickly realizing that it’s not his true calling. He chose to stick with it for a while to build a solid technical background, after which he joined a consulting firm to learn a bit more about the business side of running a software company. When he got to his late 20’s, he had gathered enough experience to go out on his own and start a company.Although Jan got the idea for Celigo way back in 2004, it wasn’t the first venture he pursued when he went out on his own. For about 5 years he ran a consultancy that focused on processes and integrations, and he managed to scale that business to 100+ employees before ultimately starting Celigo in January of 2011.At the beginning Celigo encountered a major roadblock - their platform was built to be operated by technically advanced users, effectively making their platform inaccessible for the average business user. Their first iteration wasn’t up to par, so Jan made the tough decision to scrap the platform and start from scratch. It turned out to be the best decision they made.Tune into the full episode to learn more on Jan’s journey to founding Celigo!HIGHLIGHTS:00:00 What does iPaaS mean?01:42 Jan’s Journey Into Entrepreneurship04:48 The Inception of Celigo12:32 Finding Product-Market FIt15:47 Becoming a Victim of Your Own SuccessConnect with Jan - https://www.linkedin.com/in/janarendtsz/ Check out Celigo - https://www.celigo.com/ Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit FullCycleProduct.com Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit https://chaostoclarity.io/