Modern CTO

Today, we're talking to Alan Williamson, professional CTO for private equity-backed companies and author of Think Like a CTO. We discuss why the industry's $20-a-month AI subscriptions can't possibly cover a trillion-dollar cost structure, how some companies are quietly deleting the word "AI" from their marketing to win customers back, and why the old playbook for modernizing legacy systems no longer applies now that AI can out-rebuild it. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast! To learn more about Alan Williamson, check out his website here

Today, we're talking to Anthony Scriffignano, PhD, a longtime chief data scientist now working on hyperspectral space intelligence and global AI policy. We discuss why AI has put technology leaders in what he calls a "Red Queen problem," where you have to run faster just to stay in place, how most people wildly overestimate how much of the internet an LLM can actually see, and why leading with the technology instead of the problem is one of the costliest mistakes in enterprise AI right now. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast!

Today, we're talking to Tony Davis and John Balsavage of A&I Solutions, the team behind Scout, their AI agent governance platform. We discuss why they built a literal terrain map to visualize what's happening inside an AI agent's mind, how two agents secretly colluded to overturn a vote in their own testing lab, and why every AI agent you build today will be obsolete within a year no matter how well you built it. To learn more about A&I Solutions, check out their website here

Today, we're talking to Moran Cerf, neuroscientist and professor who studies live human brains through implanted electrodes during surgery. We discuss why the person who sees reality clearly drives more change than the one with official authority, how ant colonies and corporate boardrooms follow the same hidden rules of swarm leadership, and why the smell in a room might quietly decide the outcome of your next negotiation. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast! To learn more about Moran’s work, check out his website here.

Today, we're talking to Mauro Stara, founder of Six Pack CEO. We discuss why working out less, not harder, was the real fix behind one of his most dramatic client transformations, how a health scare in his twenties pushed him out of banking and into coaching high-performing men, and why getting genuinely healthy often means letting go of the people and identity that made staying unhealthy feel comfortable. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast! To learn more about Six Pack CEO, check out their website here

Today, we're talking to Francisco Trindade, VP of Software Engineering at Braze. We discuss why code review, not code generation, has become the real bottleneck in AI-driven engineering, how the leap to a codebase run by thousands of autonomous agents could repeat the failed promise of microservices at ten times the scale, and why the best career advice only makes sense once you stop trying to plan five years ahead. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast!

Today, we're talking to Campbell Brown, CEO and co-founder of PredictHQ. We discuss why the world's smartest AI models are still blind to real-world context, how a single film festival can quietly drain a retailer's entire workforce, and why the best way to get customers to follow your rules is to stop making them read the instructions. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast! To learn more about PredictHQ, check out their website here.

If you fear failure, you’re not going to get very far. Neither will your team. Today, we're talking to Arnie Katz, CPTO at GoFundMe. We discuss why asking for help is harder and less understood than giving it, how AI now writes fundraiser titles that outperform the ones people write themselves, and why the biggest lesson from his failed startup was that believing you're customer-obsessed is worthless if you won't look at the data that proves you wrong. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast!  To learn more about Arnie Katz, connect with him here.

In the future, self-checkout will come right to you. Today, we're talking to Yev Tsirulnik and Naresh Keswani of Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions. We discuss why the next decade of retail is about digitizing the physical store rather than the website, how loyalty data is quietly turning into a trust score that decides whether your store forgives you at self checkout, and what it actually takes to move agentic AI from a flashy experiment to something a thousand stores can run. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast!  To learn more about Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions, check out their website here.

If scientists are being entirely honest, is non-human technology already on earth? Today, we're talking to Avi Loeb, Harvard astrophysicist and head of the government's new UAP Science Advisory Council. We discuss why the hunt for alien life is shifting from waiting for a radio call to checking the mailbox for a package, how a so-called "dark comet" turned out to be a lost Soviet spacecraft, and why the loudest skeptics and the truest believers are making the exact same mistake. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast!  To learn more about Avi's work, check it out here.

We were told to specialize endlessly…now, AI is here. Today, we're talking to Mahesh Guruswamy, COO of Kajabi. We discuss why the specialist executive is becoming extinct as tech gets commoditized, how "AI fatigue" is really grief over eroding craft rather than exhaustion, and why the biggest threat to the AI boom might be economics, not technology. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast!  To learn more about Mahesh's course, check it out here.

If you’re feeling burnt out, it’s not the work you’re doing. It’s the mission you’re on. Today, we're talking to Justin Fanelli, Chief Technology Officer of the Department of the Navy. We discuss why direct communication is fuel rather than friction, how the most driven government workers are often the ones who've already "made it" elsewhere, and why burnout has almost nothing to do with hours worked and everything to do with whether you feel connected to something bigger. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast! 

Why did a smear campaign almost take out this anti-food waste company? Today, we're talking to Luiz Beling, CEO at Apeel, about how a company that captured 60% of the U.S. avocado market can lose it almost overnight to a coordinated smear campaign. We discuss why narrative security now matters as much as cybersecurity, how a childhood kidnapping in Brazil quietly shaped his approach to crisis leadership, and why the real fix for food waste isn't more supply. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast! To learn more about Apeel, check out their website here.

He’s 31, and nobody he knows is having kids. Tech is to blame, but what’s the solution? Today, we're talking to Connor Leahy, US Director at ControlAI. We discuss why plummeting birth rates look eerily similar to what happens when zoo animals stop breeding, how ideas can spread and cause real harm the same way diseases do, and why the safest path with superintelligence might be to ban it outright rather than pretend we already understand it. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast! To learn more about ControlAI, check out their website here

Developers, how confident are you in the future of your job? Today, we're catching up with Hrishi Dixit, cofounder and CTO of Autonomy Finance, about what actually happens when you hand the keys to AI in a regulated industry — why the first pass of AI-generated code is never shippable, how a commingled client data hallucination can end a company overnight, and why the engineers who survive the AI wave won't be the ones who write the most code, but the ones who know exactly when the machine is about to get someone killed. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast! To learn more about Autonomy Finance, check out their website here.

What happens when the worst among us get their hands on the most powerful tools? Today, we're talking to Zach Goldberg, CEO at Gruntwork, about the messy edges of AI adoption. We discuss why "vibe coding" has created a new category of disposable, single-purpose software that never would have existed before, why the line between AI you can trust to read data and AI you can trust to write to production may be the most important distinction in enterprise tech right now, and why the real bottleneck on AI misuse has shifted from access to intelligence itself. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast! To learn more about Gruntwork, check out their website here.

Confidence and readiness are actually NOT the same thing. Today, we're talking to Daniel Morris, CPO at Sinch, about why 81% of mature companies roll back their AI programs even as 89% of leaders claim they're fully prepared, how the shift from SMS to rich messaging is rewriting the rules for how brands connect with customers, and why the next evolution of authentication might mean your phone silently proves who you are without you ever seeing a prompt. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast! To learn more about Sinch, check out their website here.

This is how Snapchat sets itself apart in the social media space: they’re not a social media company. Today, we're talking to Saral Jain, SVP and Head of Engineering at Snapchat, about how one of tech's most underestimated companies is quietly outpacing giants. We discuss why Snapchat has always refused to call itself a social media company and what that distinction means for every product decision they make, how AI is actually changing the day-to-day reality of software engineering through autonomous coding agents like their internal tool Casper, and why the skills that matter most in the AI era have less to do with writing code and everything to do with taste, judgment, and the willingness to raise your hand. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast!

What if you didn’t have to solve problems? You can just remove them entirely. Today, we're talking to Steve Francis, CEO at Sidero Labs, about why the most dangerous thing running in your infrastructure might be the operating system itself. We discuss how eliminating features rather than adding them is the real path to security, why the promise of multi-cloud portability turned out to be a lesson in what customers actually care about, and why "extreme ownership" remains the most empowering philosophy a leader can adopt. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast!  To learn more about Sidero Labs, check out their website here.

Understanding these key points is what actually moves the needle on AI gains. Today, we're talking to Kyle Lagunas, analyst and founder at Kyle & Co, and Allyn Bailey, senior director of communications at SmartRecruiters, about why AI momentum in HR is stalling and what's actually moving the needle. We discuss why the organizations leading on AI aren't doing anything flashy, how the most boring red-tape work turns out to be the biggest unlock, why HR's instinct for risk avoidance is exactly the wrong posture for this moment, and what a surprising finding about EU companies under heavy regulation reveals about the relationship between guardrails and speed. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast!  To learn more about SmartRecruiters, check out their website here. To read Kyle and Co's full AI Momentum Model, check it out here.

We’re putting more and more trust into AI. Will it all blend into one app? Today, we're talking to Jacques Klick, Director of Market Strategy & Product Marketing at Sinch. We discuss why the app store era is quietly ending and what replaces it, how a 62% enterprise AI adoption rate is hiding a 74% rollback problem, and what RCS actually is and why it might be the most underutilized channel in marketing right now. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast!  To learn more about Sinch, check out their website here. To read Sinch's full report on The AI Production Paradox, check it out here.

Would you live with a humanoid robot? Could you beat one in a fight? Today, we're talking to Dar Sleeper, VP of Design, Product, and Marketing at 1X, the company building Neo, a humanoid robot designed to live and work alongside humans in the home. We discuss why the home is actually the most strategic beachhead in humanoid robotics, how world models are collapsing the gap between robots that follow instructions and robots that genuinely learn, why consumer adoption may be the unlock that industrial deployments can never be, and what it feels like to have a 60-pound robot in your house long before the rest of the world can get one. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast!  To learn more about 1X, check out their

His company policy is: there will be absolutely no human-written code. Today, we're talking to Trevor Hinesley, Cofounder and CTO at Soundstripe. We discuss the five levels of AI-written code and what it actually looks like to operate at the highest ones, why Trevor's team has a strict policy of zero human-written code, how the "dark factory" concept is reshaping what engineers actually do, and why a company built on AI-powered development still bets everything on human-made music. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast!  To learn more about Soundstripe, check out their website here.

Product managers are FORGETTING that they’re problem solvers. Today, we're talking to Marty Cagan, product management author and founder of the Silicon Valley Product Group. We discuss why most tech companies are unknowingly running a model that almost guarantees shipping things that don't matter, how AI is simultaneously exposing and accelerating that problem, why the real bottleneck was never your engineers, and how large language models might finally solve the product coaching gap that's held back a generation of product people. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast!  To learn more about Marty, connect with him on LinkedIn.

Can today’s technology really prevent tomorrow’s diseases? Today, we're talking to Eriona Hysolli, biologist and co-founder of Manhattan Genomics. We discuss why preventing genetic disease before birth is a more powerful idea than treating it in adulthood, how the UK quietly pioneered a procedure that most of the world still considers off-limits, why the loudest opposition to gene editing often comes from bioethicists rather than the public, and what it would actually take to engineer traits — from woolly mouse hair to human limb regeneration — with enough certainty to act on. To learn more about Eriona, connect with her on LinkedIn.

Understanding the real world is the biggest potential advantage of AI. Today, we're talking to Campbell Brown, CEO and cofounder of PredictHQ, about the layer of real-world intelligence that AI models are still missing. We discuss why 65% of unexplained demand spikes come down to something most businesses completely ignore, how a New Zealand car rental company became the data backbone for Uber and Expedia, why the era of reading API documentation is effectively over, and what it actually means to "eat stress" as a founder — and why reconciling it matters just as much. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast!  To learn more about PredictHQ, check out their website here.

If you understand this about your brain, you’ll be unstoppable. Today, we're talking to Moran Cerf, neuroscientist and professor, about why the hidden signals shaping human behavior have more in common with ants and fish than we'd like to admit, how smell — not vision — may be the most underestimated force behind the decisions we make, why brains in the same room quietly synchronize whether their owners agree or not, and what it actually means when an alien looking down from the moon asks what the humans are building. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast!  To learn more about Moran's work, check out his website here.

If you’re trying to get ahead and you’re the best at your job, then we have bad news for you. Today, we're talking to executive coach Bill Tingle. We discuss why being the best at your job is actually holding you back, how executive presence goes far deeper than confidence or gravitas, and why building the right relationships matters more than any result you'll ever deliver. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast!  To learn more about Bill's coaching, check out his website here.

Every product and piece of art you love is a ripoff…and that’s a good thing. Today, we're talking to Michael Grinich, founder of WorkOS. We discuss why copying great work is a sign of maturity rather than weakness, how the best builders draw inspiration from wildly different industries, and why the most enduring motivation in tech is really just a form of suffering. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast! To learn more about WorkOS, check out their website here.

If you’re not arguing with your team, you might be making a big mistake. Today, we're bringing you timeless advice from Brendan Wovchko, CTO at Ramsey Solutions. We discuss why most organizations have a shared urgency problem and what to do about it, how the "act or argue" principle can transform your team culture, and why the best technologists are still driven by mission instead of money or status. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast!  To learn more about Ramsey Solutions, check out their website here.

Here's what decisive AI leadership ACTUALLY looks like in practice. Today, we're talking to Dan Cardinal, CTO at Beghou, about how he's using tools like Blitzy to achieve 80% autonomous project completion at scale. We discuss how caution in sensitive industries like healthcare shapes AI adoption, why human-in-the-loop controls are non-negotiable for production AI at scale, and how one skeptic went all-in on AI-powered development and came out a believer. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast!  To learn more about Beghou, check out their website here. To learn more about Blitzy, check out their website here.

How do we decide that a project is actually finished in the age of AI? Today, we're talking to Iccha Sethi, SVP of Engineering at Vanta. We discuss why software is never truly done in the age of AI, how engineering leaders can manage model drift through evaluation frameworks, and why the top 1% of engineers all share one unexpected trait. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast!  To learn more about Vanta, check out their website here.

Employee experience is in shambles today. How can you put it back together? Today, we're talking to Jacob Morgan, Author and Futurist at Future Ready Leadership. We discuss why organizations must return to the basics of employee experience in an AI-driven world, how leaders need to adopt five key archetypes to stay relevant, and why designing for flexibility inside your organization is the future of talent retention. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast!  To connect with Jacob, check out his website here.

Don’t be afraid to make yourself entirely…replaceable? Today, we're talking to Hrishi Dixit, Principal at Gordian Labs. We discuss how to make yourself redundant as a tech leader, why culture is the only thing that outlasts you, and how knowing when to get out of the weeds is the mark of a truly great CTO. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast! To connect with Hrishi, visit his LinkedIn here.

Here's what integrity under pressure ACTUALLY looks like in practice. Today, we're talking to Jack Tam, SVP of Engineering at Intuit. We discuss why integrity means holding yourself to a high bar even when no one is looking, how a growth mindset and curiosity across disciplines can sustain a 20-year career, and why this is the most exciting time in technology despite the uncertainty AI brings. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast!

He learned that he had to leave the room to truly make a difference. Today, we're talking to Tony Martignetti, Executive Coach and Author of Campfire Lessons for Leaders. We discuss why hiding your true self at work leads to burnout, how the three C's of curiosity, compassion, and connection can unlock self-awareness, and why leaving the room to change the room is the ultimate act of courageous leadership. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast!  To learn more about Tony Martignetti, check out his website here.

Change is faster than ever. Your team needs to ACTUALLY trust you. Today, we're talking to Noah Cantor, Executive Coach. We discuss why most tech leaders receive no training before stepping into leadership roles, how inconsistent leadership styles lead to demotivated and underperforming teams, and why aligning your actions with your core values is the key to reducing stress and leading with clarity. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast! To learn more about Noah Cantor, check out his website here.

Everybody’s talking about it… what are you actually going to DO about it? Today, we're talking to Francisco Trindade, Vice President of Software Engineering at Braze. We discuss why AI is shifting the bottleneck from writing code to reviewing it, how companies must invest in restructuring their codebases to unlock 10x productivity gains, and why systems thinking is the key to effective engineering leadership. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast!  To learn more about Braze, check out their website here. Thank you to Span for sponsoring this episode. To learn more about Span,

The results are in: AI has humans beat at code review. What now? Today, we're talking to Kayvon Beykpour, Co-founder and CEO of Macroscope. We discuss why large organizations must embrace AI or risk falling behind, how agentic coding tools are transforming the software development lifecycle, and why the real bottleneck in modern engineering is no longer writing code. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast!  To learn more about Macroscope, check out their website her

The robots were supposed to do the dishes. Instead, they're writing poetry. Today, we're talking to Brian Alvey, CTO at WordPress VIP. We discuss why AI should be thought of as artificial creativity rather than artificial intelligence, how modern CTOs no longer need large teams to build and ship at scale, and why embracing shortcuts is the only rational response to the pace of technological change. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast!  To learn more about WordPress VIP, check out their website here.

Everybody is looking at the WRONG bubble. Today, we're talking to Brian Singer, CTO at RSI and President of Singer Concept. We discuss the AI bubble nobody is talking about, why healthcare executives are being disproportionately misled by false AI vendors, and how to structure shared-risk partnerships that guarantee ROI before you spend a dime. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast!  To learn more about Brian Singer, check out his website here.

It’s about time for the next age of human flourishing. Will AI get us there? Today, we're talking to Zack Kass, author and former OpenAI Go-to-Market Lead. We discuss why AI will likely cure cancer before autonomous vehicles dominate our roads, how mid-market and family-owned businesses can survive the AI consolidation wave, and why the future of AI is invisible infrastructure rather than apps. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast!  To learn more about Zack Kass, check out his website here. To learn more about Zack's latest venture, Korza, check out their website here.

Ready for a brand new show? Today, in a special episode, we're talking about OpenAI shutting down Sora and what it means for the future of AI-generated video. We discuss why consumer demand wasn't enough to keep Sora alive, how AI-generated content is fueling a misinformation crisis on social media, and why the rise of fake digital content might actually push us back toward valuing in-person connection. Make sure to subscribe to Tech in the Morning on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@techinthemorning

THIS is how you know you’re not really ready for primetime. Today, we're bringing you our most timeless advice from our last conversation with Alan Williamson, Author of Think Like a CTO. We discuss why most first-time CTOs struggle to communicate with non-technical executives, how to think about budgeting and engineering costs like a true technology leader, and why the ability to articulate a clear vision is what separates a real CTO from a CTO in name only. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast!  To learn more about Alan Williamson, check out his website here.

It’s not just the bad guys who need to hide anymore. Today, we're talking to Guy Kawasaki, legendary Apple evangelist and Chief Evangelist at Canva. We discuss why everybody has something to hide in the digital age, how metadata reveals far more than most people realize, and why Signal is the most practical step you can take to protect your privacy and security right now. Email Guy at [email protected] for a free copy of the book! All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast!  To learn more about Guy's latest book, check it out here.

AI tools are more powerful than ever, but you still can’t operate like THIS. Today, we're talking to Stephen Poletto, Field CTO at Span. We discuss why engineering teams are making decisions based on hype instead of data, how AI is reshaping software development through emerging practices like harness engineering, and why measuring actual productivity versus perceived productivity is more critical than ever. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast!  To learn more about Span, check out their website here.

Things are changing faster than ever, but don’t let it affect your team. Today, we're talking to Ashley Goodall, leadership expert and bestselling author. We discuss why the management obsession with change is harming the people it's meant to help, how constant reorganization leads to learned helplessness and quiet quitting, and why the real goal should never be just change. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast!

What if green technology was actually just more profitable? Today, we're talking to Tom Chi, Google X Co-Founder and Founding Partner at At One Ventures, about his new bestselling book, Climate Capital. We discuss why the physical world is a more predictable investment than software, how his firm identifies the 30 industries responsible for over 90% of planetary damage, and why making clean technology the most profitable technology is the only climate strategy that actually scales. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast!  To learn more about At One Ventures, check out their website here.

From chip design at Bell Laboratories to…the world's #1 Venn diagram comedian?? Today, we're talking to Don McMillan, comedian and former chip designer at Bell Laboratories. We discuss how burning out in Silicon Valley led him to pursue stand-up comedy full time, why having an engineering mindset made him a better comedian, and how a random radio caller unknowingly changed the entire trajectory of his life. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast!  To learn more about Don and his tour schedule, check out his website here

The best managers are the ones who never wanted the job. Today, we're talking to Rajeev Rajan, CTO at Atlassian. We discuss why developer joy outperforms productivity as an engineering goal, how the best managers are the ones who never wanted the job, and why every leadership playbook you've built stops working the moment your team grows. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast!  To learn more about Atlassian, check out their website here.