Mastering Tech Growth

Most “CTOs” are still senior engineers with a fancy title — stuck in the code, fumbling in the boardroom, and bleeding money through bad tech decisions. This conversation shows you how to flip into a true business-first CTO who leads with strategy, ROI and systems, not commit history.Perfect listen for aspiring CTO in a startup or scale-up who keeps getting pulled into delivery hell while your CEO wants commercial answers, not technical detail.To unpack this, I sat down with Khalil Dimachkie, co-creator of Imperial College’s Emerging CTO Programme. He’s the CTO at Blue Light Card, leading technology for 5.7m+ frontline members, has grown teams from 1 to 100+, and has advised private equity firms through tech-heavy M&A deals.https://www.linkedin.com/in/khalild/In this episode:The “engineering trap”: how hands-on CTOs slow the business down, lose investor confidence, and what it looks like to escape into a true executive role.A simple way to “zoom out” and spot your own gaps as a CTO, plus how to use coaches, communities and structured programmes to build real business skills fast.The core operating system of a modern CTO: ROI as your north star, how to think about metrics beyond DORA, and why security posture belongs in every board pack.How to spend your first 90 days as a new CTO: the discovery pattern Khalil uses, who to speak to, what to map, and how to resist being dragged into firefighting.The meetings, habits and reports that signal you’re a business-focused CTO: daily trading checks, monthly operational reviews, one-to-ones that actually work, and non-negotiable release decision rights.Where most tech teams leak money in the cloud, why logging and microservices are often the culprits, and how to embed FinOps thinking into everyday engineering.Get the links, notes and CTO resources from this episode at masteringtechgrowth.com.

Stop hoarding expertise. Start unlocking growth with real curiosity.Most tech teams trust expertise. Leaders build, iterate, and launch what they “know”—but 8 out of 10 startups fail because experts don’t check if buyers want the solution. As expertise grows, so does risk: teams build in isolation, decisions loop inside closed rooms, and market changes pass by unseen.Now, you flip the script. Winning founders lead with curiosity and humility. They ask great questions, engage real customers, and spend one day a month outside the office. Instead of perfecting the answer, they chase discovery—with rapid feedback, a culture of open debate, and constant relevance. Start with purpose, build in public, test ideas fast, and adapt before the data goes stale.Bring your team together, not just engineers. Rotate pods, mix perspectives—then go out and find three ways anyone else would solve your problem. Seek the proof of discovery, not proof of expertise. Keep future-focused, stay a bit paranoid, and let curiosity be your growth engine.Book one curiosity day next month. Walk your market, listen hard, then share what you find.Alan Gregerman rewrites the playbook every day, so you learn from real-world results.About Alan Gregerman: Innovation consultant, keynote speaker, author — trusted by 350+ global firms including Google and Mercedes-Benz.What we discussed: → Why customers—not expertise—call the shots in tech growth→ How the speed of AI changes experience and timelines→ Real failure rates from assuming you “know” the market→ Six skills that leaders must master (not just “soft skills”)→ Concrete hacks: Lego tests, market walks, cross-silo pods→ The role of humility and paranoia in fast-changing industries→ How to stay relevant by getting out of the officeWhere to find Alan Gregerman:→ Website: https://alangregerman.com→ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alangregerman/Where to find Mike Sirius:→ Website: https://www.mikesirius.com→ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/msirius/👉 Grab the community playbooks and join us @ masteringtechgrowth.comQuestion for you:🗣️ What single customer need will you ask about before you build?

In this conversation, Mike Sirius and Matt Watson discuss the evolving landscape of tech growth, emphasising the shift from merely closing tickets to owning outcomes. They explore the importance of lead generation, building relationships, and the role of AI in software development. Matt shares insights on empowering engineers to think beyond tasks, fostering a culture of outcome ownership, and the significance of customer feedback. The discussion highlights the need for clarity in communication and the impact of leadership on team dynamics, ultimately advocating for a more holistic approach to software development that priorities customer value and collaboration.TakeawaysTech growth is more about sales and marketing than technology.Being best known for what you do is crucial for success.Lead generation is more important than closing deals.Building relationships is key to successful lead generation.Engineers should focus on outcomes, not just tasks.AI is changing the landscape of software development.Clarity is essential for software engineers to be productive.Empowering team members leads to better outcomes.Celebrating wins fosters a positive team culture.Customer feedback is vital for continuous improvement.

In this conversation, Mike Sirius and Samir Samir ElKamouny discuss the essential strategies for mastering tech growth, focusing on the importance of identifying bottlenecks, understanding ideal customer profiles, and the necessity of a full funnel approach. They emphasise the significance of competitive analysis, effective messaging, and the need for continuous testing and optimisation in marketing channels. The discussion also highlights the importance of customer feedback and the creation of targeted landing pages to enhance conversion rates.TakeawaysMastering tech growth involves understanding technology's role in business growth.Identifying bottlenecks is crucial for optimizing growth strategies.A full funnel approach is necessary for predictable revenue generation.Understanding your ideal customer profile (ICP) is foundational for effective marketing.Multi-touch decision-making requires addressing various stakeholders' needs.Crafting effective messaging is key to engaging your target audience.Competitive analysis helps in positioning your business effectively in the market.Testing different marketing channels is essential for finding the right fit.Creating targeted landing pages can significantly improve conversion rates.Leveraging customer feedback is vital for continuous improvement. Specific landing pages can significantly improve conversion rates.Targeted messaging is essential for addressing customer pain points.Data analysis helps identify bottlenecks and opportunities for growth.Heatmaps provide valuable insights into user behavior on websites.AI can enhance the speed and effectiveness of creative testing.Budget allocation should focus on personal development and impactful tools.Different social media platforms serve various roles in the marketing funnel.Lead forms may yield lower quality leads compared to landing pages.Video content can dramatically increase conversion rates.Integrating direct outreach with ad campaigns enhances brand recognition.Chapters00:00 Introduction to Tech Growth Strategies03:10 Identifying Bottlenecks for Growth06:00 The Importance of a Full Funnel08:57 Understanding Ideal Customer Profiles (ICP)12:11 Navigating Multi-Touch Decision Making15:00 Crafting Effective Messaging and Positioning17:55 Competitive Analysis for Market Positioning20:57 Testing and Optimizing Marketing Channels24:11 Creating Targeted Landing Pages26:56 Leveraging Customer Feedback for Improvement29:56 Final Thoughts on Growth Strategies47:44 The Importance of Specific Landing Pages50:08 Targeted Messaging for Higher Conversions53:37 Leveraging Data for Business Growth56:29 The Role of Heatmaps in User Experience01:01:03 AI in Creative Testing and Marketing01:10:18 Budget Allocation for Maximum Impact01:11:07 Understanding Social Media's Role in the Funnel01:12:07 Lead Forms vs. Landing Pages: Quality Comparison01:14:46 Creating Effective Proof Assets01:17:15 Creative Formats Across the Funnel01:18:31 Integrating Direct Outreach with Ad Campaigns

Richardson Dackam is an AI Automation Engineer who's built a full ecosystem around one goal — helping founders build faster using AI. A YC Startup School alum and former senior engineer at Ticketmaster, FreshBooks, and Aurora Solar, Richardson blends deep technical experience with rapid prototyping systems that empower solo founders to go from idea to validated AI SaaS in a single weekend. Through his podcast, courses, and community, he teaches how to harness agentic AI frameworks, automate product workflows, and launch with speed — without waiting for a team, funding, or perfect plan.In our conversation, Richardson shares:→ Why most founders freeze — and how to break idea paralysis→ The playbook to validate and build AI SaaS in just 48 hours→ What makes a painkiller idea (vs. a vitamin)→ How to use AI for customer research, roleplay, and PRD writing→ The tools behind “Weekend Architecture” and real-time prototyping→ His favorite way to get feedback before writing a single line of code→ Why community is the ultimate shortcut to traction→ What founders get wrong about market timing and speedWhether you're a solo founder, indie hacker, or operator, this episode is packed with frameworks you can put into action immediately — even this weekend.Where to find Richardson Dackam:→ Website: https://richdackam.com/→ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardsondx/→ X/Threads: https://x.com/RichardsonDxWhere to find Mike Sirius:→ Website: https://www.mikesirius.com→ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/msirius/In this episode, we cover:00:00 Introduction to Tech Growth and AI05:47 Overcoming Founder Challenges and Decision Paralysis11:48 Understanding Customer Value and Painkillers vs. Vitamins17:58 Finding Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)23:46 Building Prototypes and Product Requirement Documents (PRD)29:47 The Role of Community in Product Launches35:49 The Future of SaaS in an AI-Driven World41:40 The Hype of AI and Its Real Impact49:46 Understanding AI Context and Its Importance55:07 Micro Pain and Micro SaaS Opportunities01:01:06 Building Systems for Efficiency01:08:30 The Importance of Distribution in Startup Success🎙️ Was this helpful? Let’s stay connected:→ Subscribe to never miss a drop→ Reviews mean the world — and help us grow→ Drop a comment — we actually read them 🙂→ Want to sponsor? Let’s chat: [email protected]→ More episodes: https://masteringtechgrowth.com

In this conversation, Ryan Debenham shares insights on the importance of crossing lanes in the tech industry, emphasising that software engineers must engage with go-to-market strategies to build products that resonate with customers. He discusses the significance of product market fit, the need for empathy in understanding customer needs, and the evolving role of engineers in shaping successful products. Ryan also highlights the value of continuous learning and adapting to new technologies, particularly AI, as essential for career growth in the tech landscape.TakeawaysA good product is the primary driver of growth.Engineers must understand customer needs to build successful products.Crossing lanes from engineering to go-to-market is essential for growth.Empathy is crucial for engineers to connect with customers.Engineers should actively engage in customer interactions.Developing a value framework can enhance product development.Cultural shifts in engineering teams can improve collaboration.AI is revolutionizing the tech industry and engineering roles.Asking the right questions is key to effective product development.Prioritising professional growth over titles leads to long-term success.Chapters00:00 Introduction to Tech Growth and Career Paths02:43 The Importance of Product Market Fit06:01 Crossing Lanes: The Shift from Engineer to Leader09:01 Understanding Customer Needs and Empathy11:51 The Role of Engineers in Product Development14:39 Building Credibility Through Cross-Functional Collaboration17:38 The Impact of Organizational Structure on Growth20:39 Strategies for Engineers to Engage with Customers23:41 Conclusion: Embracing a Customer-Centric Mindset42:51 Shifting Mindsets: From Code to Business Value45:23 Cultural Change: Encouraging Engineer-Customer Interaction49:35 The Rise of AI in Engineering: Embracing New Tools53:55 Understanding Customer Value: A Framework for Engineers01:02:59 Essential Reads for Engineers: Communication and Leadership01:09:12 Bridging the Gap: Engineering and Business Understanding01:11:46 The Importance of Purpose: Why Are We Building This?01:15:38 Embracing Challenges: The Path to Professional GrowthKeywordstech growth, software engineering, product market fit, customer empathy, go-to-market strategies, engineering leadership, AI in tech, career development, value framework, engineering culture

In this conversation, Mike Sirius and Andrei Nita discuss the critical role of strategy in technology leadership, emphasising that successful CTOs prioritise business goals over technology itself. They explore the importance of understanding business maturity, the challenges of managing a troubled tech stack, and the need for hiring versatile talent. The discussion also covers the transition from a reactive, firefighting approach to a proactive, strategic leadership style, and the significance of aligning technology with business objectives to drive growth and value.  The speakers delve into the multifaceted role of a CTO, discussing the importance of effective communication, understanding technical debt, and the significance of aligning engineering objectives with business goals. They explore strategies for navigating the first weeks in a new role, the necessity of constant updates to executives, and the challenges of leading change in a resistant company culture. The discussion also highlights the importance of financial literacy for CTOs and the need for a clear decision-making framework in urgent situations.TakeawaysCTOs should prioritize strategy over technology.Business maturity influences tech decisions.Hiring should focus on generalists with business acumen.Firefighting leads to survival mode, not growth.Establish must-not-cross thresholds for tech stability.Align tech initiatives with business goals.Effective presentations should focus on customer value.Process improvement should be reactive in early-stage startups.Avoid decisions that lead to dead ends in tech development.Tech strategy must resonate with executive goals. Three is a comfortable number for decision-making.Understanding pain points is crucial in the first week.Delivering on a project that others couldn't is a key win.Constant communication with executives is essential.Technical debt should be integrated into regular work.Linking engineering OKRs to business goals is vital.Hiring should focus on maintaining quality and vision.Selling infrastructure upgrades requires focusing on results.CTOs should have a strong grasp of financial metrics.Decision-making should align with company goals.Sound Bites"Put strategy first and technology second.""It's a timeline, not just one thing.""If everything is a P0, nothing is a P0.""You need to understand what the business is.""You need to think about revenue.""Hire generalists, not just developers.""Focus on process too much won't help.""You can have a decision that can be undone.""Assume you're presenting to a customer.""You're there as part of a business.""Communication should never stop.""You should know the business numbers."KeywordsCTO, technology strategy, business growth, tech leadership, hiring, tech stack, business value, tech-first mindset, agile development, process improvement, CTO, leadership, technical debt, communication, engineering, business goals, product ownership, infrastructure upgrades, hiring, company culture, decision making

In this episode, Mike Sirius and Hikari Senju delve into the transformative role of AI in advertising. They explore how AI can streamline ad creation, enhance personalisation, and improve efficiency, while also discussing the importance of understanding growth loops and the impact of customer obsession on business success. Hikari shares insights on the evolution of advertising, the challenges of generating effective ads with AI, and the performance metrics that matter. The discussion highlights the balance between leveraging AI technology and maintaining brand authenticity. TakeawaysAI advertisement saves time and money for founders.Growth loops create a compelling user journey.Second order effects are crucial for sustainable growth.AI can personalize ads based on real-time data.The creative process in advertising was traditionally labor-intensive.AI can generate multiple ad variations quickly.Performance metrics are essential for evaluating ad success.AI-generated ads can outperform traditional ads in ROI.Authenticity in branding is vital for consumer trust.AI's capabilities in video generation are still developing. The market will dictate who runs advertising cheaper and more effectively.Personalized products have been trending due to social media and targeted advertising.Finding the right audience is crucial for D2C brands.AI fuels the fragmentation of brands targeting niche audiences.Legacy brands may regain value as consumers seek trust and comfort.YouTube's data is a competitive advantage for Google.Legal risks exist in using AI-generated content without permission.AI technology is improving at an exponential rate.Most video ads on platforms like YouTube will soon be AI-generated.Return on ad spend is the most critical metric for advertising success.Sound Bites"Growth loops create a snowball effect for business.""Customer obsession drives growth as a number one.""AI can generate thousands of ads in one go.""Authenticity is key for brand trust in advertising.""AI does a better job with graphic design than video.""AI's uncanny valley still exists in video ads.""The market will dictate who will run this cheaper.""There's been a trend towards personalised products.""AI just fuels that further.""YouTube is a massive treasure trove of data.""Stealing someone's artwork is a real risk.""Return on ad spend is the most important metric."

Stop treating go-to-market like a one-off campaign. Build it like a product with alpha, beta and brutal go/no-go rules so you can ship faster, learn faster, and avoid the “we launched it anyway” disaster.Perfect listen for product, marketing or growth leads in lean startups where launches keep slipping because nobody truly owns the go-to-market, so approvals, handoffs and rework quietly kill momentum.To unpack this, I spoke with Anya Cheng. She wrote a book that breaks down the alpha–beta–launch approach used inside Meta, eBay and Target. She’s also founder and CEO of Taylor, an AI-powered menswear rental and personal styling company, and a former product and go-to-market leader at Facebook, eBay, Target and McDonald’s.Where to find Anya Cheng: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anyacheng/In this episode:Why internal reasons kill launch dates and the lightweight system that removes the chaos.How to use tiny rollouts to learn fast and reduce risk.The big-tech pattern you can copy: test at 0.1%, then scale through 1%, 10%, 20%, 50% when the signal is real.What to measure in beta so data beats opinions before you open the floodgates.How to avoid the classic trap of changing the message mid-flight.Get the links, notes and resources from this episode at masteringtechgrowth.com

Selling your business is where most founders lose their leverage, not win it. This episode shows how to turn your tech company or agency into a sellable asset years before exit so buyers pay up instead of retrading you down at the last minute.Perfect listen if you’re a bootstrapped or lightly funded tech / agency founder who wants real exit options, not burnout, golden handcuffs and a surprise haircut on valuation.To unpack this, I sat down with Jordan Calderon, a two-time exited founder and president of StratDev, one of the top 100 marketing firms in the US. He’s built and sold multiple bootstrapped companies, lived through a painful retrade on his first exit, then engineered a multi-offer, over-ask sale on his second.https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordan-a-calderon/In this episode:The simple “hit-by-a-bus” test Jordan uses to spot founder dependency early and remove it so you don’t get stuck in multi-year earn-out handcuffs.How the M&A process actually works (CIM, LOI, due diligence, retrades) and the brutal $50m → $1.2m horror story that proves why exit readiness is a 1–3 year game, not a 3-month sprint.The three levers buyers care about most: sustainable growth curves, a business that runs without you, and SOPs that can add roughly +1x EBITDA to your valuation almost out of thin air.A dead-simple framework for building SOPs in Google Docs (including the “Starbucks stranger” test) so any new hire—or buyer—can follow your processes like a recipe.How Jordan uses offshore and nearshore teams to charge “US prices, global costs” while improving delivery quality and margins.The pricing and negotiation moves he used to go from being retraded on his first deal to running a competitive process with 11 LOIs, anchoring high, and protecting terms inside the LOI.Get the links, notes and resources from this episode at masteringtechgrowth.com

You’ve met AI assistants. Now imagine one that knows you. It understands your ideas, your voice, your judgment, and works beside you. In this episode, I sit down with Suman Kanuganti, CEO and Co-Founder of PersonalAI, to explore how AI agents built from your own knowledge are redefining what it means to work and think.Suman explains how AI agents capture organisational knowledge, learn continuously, and operate as role-based teammates instead of generic assistants. We talk about why structured data is no longer a bottleneck. How no-code AI tools accelerate adoption. What it really takes to build private, secure AI systems that scale with your business.We also explore a bigger question. What happens when every professional has a personal AI that mirrors their mind? From collaboration and efficiency to governance and trust, this conversation shows how the next generation of AI agents will reshape work by the end of the decade.If you rate this episode and leave a short comment, I’d love to thank you personally.Join the community at masteringtechgrowth.com and I’ll send you an exclusive growth resource I use with founders every week.

Marc Adams helps business owners plan their exit the smart way. He is a top business exit planner, M&A expert, and best-selling author. Marc shows founders how to grow their business, sell it, and keep more money. He is backed by £18 billion in family office support. His system helps you find hidden value, grow through acquisition, and avoid big tax bills when you sell.In this episode, Marc answers:→ What is a business exit strategy, and why should you plan it from day one?→ How can business exit planning help you keep more of what you built?→ What is the smartest way to grow through acquisition as a founder?→ How can you buy a business with no money down, even with no experience?→ Why do most business owners lose money in M&A, and how can you avoid it?→ What does a tax free business sale look like, and who qualifies for it?→ How does personal legacy shape your exit plan, and why does it matter?If you’re a founder, business owner, or entrepreneur who wants to grow, sell, or keep more from your exit, this episode is for you.Where to find Marc Adams:→ Website: https://acquisitions4you.com/→ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/1marcadams/Where to find Mike Sirius:→ Website: https://www.mikesirius.com→ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/msirius/In this episode, we cover:00:00 The Journey of a Young Entrepreneur03:10 Understanding Business Valuation and Exit Strategies05:59 The Importance of Planning for Business Sale08:57 Overcoming Personal Challenges and Finding Purpose12:13 Strategies for Doubling Business Value15:12 Navigating Tax Implications in Business Sales18:01 Acquisition Financing and Consulting for Equity20:53 Building Value Without Cash Investment33:56 Turning Points: A Teen's Journey from Trouble to Triumph36:21 Creative Financing: Strategies for Young Entrepreneurs38:33 The Information Game: Knowledge vs. Implementation40:50 Tax Strategies: Navigating Business Structures43:41 Finding the Right Specialists: Building Trust in Business48:15 Setting Goals: The Importance of Vision in Business51:39 Accelerating Growth: Strategies for Rapid Business Expansion01:02:03 Understanding Business Value and Growth Strategies01:04:25 The Importance of Tailored Business Strategies01:06:40 Secret Methods for Doubling Business Value01:07:30 Wealth Protection Post-Sale01:10:01 The Double and Keep It Blueprint01:12:13 Rapid Fire Questions on Business Acquisition01:19:19 Credibility in Zero Down Business Deals01:22:45 Understanding Earn Outs and Acquisition StrategiesFor inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email [email protected]

Ali Hafizji is the CEO of Wednesday Solutions and the creator of the Vibe Sprints system — an AI-powered approach to product validation that gives early-stage startups up to 10x more chances to achieve product-market fit. A serial founder and technologist, Ali has built and scaled products handling over 1 billion+ requests per hour, authored technical books, and helped dozens of teams go from MVP to market traction.At Wednesday, he works with founders post-MVP, helping them avoid wasted sprints, move past vanity metrics, and build lean, validated solutions using Vibe Coding and AI-native teams. If you're working toward product-market fit in 2025, this is the framework you can't afford to ignore.In our conversation, Ali shares:→ Why polishing MVPs slows you down — and what to do instead→ How to structure rapid prototyping that tests real customer behaviour→ The #1 mistake startups make after launch→ How customer discovery fits into modern product management→ Why direction beats speed in the search for PMF→ What makes Vibe Coding different from agile or lean→ Why the future of startup teams is small, AI-native pods with massive velocityWhether you're a startup founder, product leader, or operator navigating the messy middle between MVP and traction, this episode is packed with practical insights for achieving startup success in 2025 and beyond.Where to find Ali Hafizji:→ Website: https://www.wednesday.is/→ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alihafizji/Where to find Mike Sirius:→ Website: https://www.mikesirius.com→ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/msirius/In this episode, we cover:00:00 Introduction to Vibe Sprints04:49 The Shift from Speed to Direction09:49 Understanding Insights and Validation15:13 The Dangers of Polishing MVPs19:51 The Role of AI in Product Development24:58 Measuring Success in Vibe Sprints29:56 The Future of Agile Practices41:03 The Precipice of Change in Enterprises44:05 AI Tools: Prototyping vs. Production47:06 The Role of Experienced Developers in AI50:30 Bottom-Up Innovation: The Future of AI Adoption52:42 Essential AI Tools for Development01:02:23 User Feedback: Observing and Understanding Users01:06:29 Proving Traction Before Development01:11:10 Balancing Validation and Runway Risk🎙️ Was this helpful? Let’s stay connected:→ Subscribe to never miss a drop→ Reviews mean the world — and help us grow→ Drop a comment — we actually read them 🙂→ Want to sponsor? Let’s chat: [email protected]→ More episodes: https://masteringtechgrowth.com

Garrett Mehrguth is the CEO of Directive and co-founder of Abe — a high-performance LinkedIn ads agency helping companies like Uber, Zoom, Gong, and AWS turn clicks into customers. With over $68 million spent on LinkedIn ads, Garrett brings a level of insight few marketers can match. In this episode, he reveals how to build a LinkedIn marketing engine that books meetings — not just impressions.Garrett has helped B2B brands generate serious revenue by mastering linkedin lead generation, nailing down linkedin ads targeting, and aligning linkedin ads KPIs with what actually matters to pipeline. Whether you're spending $5K or $500K a month, this episode will change how you think about b2b marketing on LinkedIn.In our conversation, Garrett shares:→ Why most B2B teams waste their LinkedIn ads budget→ The truth about linkedin ads metrics (and which ones lie)→ How to reverse-engineer your linkedin ads audience using real data→ Why $5K/month is not a “test budget” — it’s a trap→ How he builds intent-based funnels without fake “intent data”→ The 15-second video strategy that cuts CPLs by 70%→ Why "clicks" mean nothing if you're not booking meetingsWhether you're a startup founder, head of growth, or B2B marketing pro, this conversation is packed with no-fluff insights into what actually drives results on LinkedIn in 2025.Where to find Garrett Mehrguth:→ https://www.linkedin.com/in/garrettmehrguth/→ https://garrettmehrguth.com/→ https://directiveconsulting.com/→ https://www.abetheagency.com/→ https://moregoodcapital.com/Where to find Mike Sirius:→ https://www.linkedin.com/in/msirius/→ https://www.mikesirius.comIn this episode, we cover:00:00 The State of LinkedIn Advertising02:59 Understanding Marketing Dynamics05:54 Budgeting for Success in LinkedIn Ads09:04 Intent-Driven Targeting Strategies11:58 The Importance of Proper Budgeting15:12 Data-Driven Audience Targeting18:13 Leveraging AI for Market Insights21:14 The Role of Content in Marketing24:05 Optimizing Video Ads for Engagement27:14 Innovative Approaches to Lead Generation30:02 Sales Strategies for Effective Conversion32:58 Closing Thoughts on Marketing Success42:51 Authentic Engagement in Sales Calls45:24 Manufacturing Intent in Marketing46:45 The Power of Emotional Marketing50:12 Targeting the Right Decision Makers56:41 Importance of Tracking Marketing Metrics01:00:34 Common Mistakes in LinkedIn Advertising01:10:05 The Future of B2B Marketing StrategiesFor sponsorship inquiries, email [email protected]#LinkedinAds #B2BMarketing #LeadGeneration #LinkedInMarketing #MarketingStrategy

Spriha Tucker is the Field CTO at Buildkite — a developer-first platform powering high-scale CI/CD pipelines. She’s a two-time Y Combinator founder, and previously built dev tools at Google and Microsoft. She also co-founded Aviator, a startup that helped elite teams like Slack and Figma ship faster.At Buildkite, Spriha helps engineering teams navigate scaling challenges, eliminate organisational friction, and build sustainable momentum without burnout. If you're leading a dev team in 2025, this is a must-listen conversation.In our conversation, Spriha shares:→ Why developer productivity isn't about doing more — it's about reducing friction.→ What most tech leaders misunderstand about developer experience→ The hidden costs of pipeline complexity and CI/CD sprawl→ How to measure progress without weaponising metrics→ Why feedback loops beat deadlines every time→ How to align teams with clarity, not chaos→ The future of tooling and workflows in software engineeringWhether you're a CTO, engineering manager, or hands-on developer, this episode offers a tactical, honest look at what it takes to scale high-performing teams in the real world.Where to find Spriha Tucker:→ Website: https://buildkite.com/→ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/spriha-tucker/Where to find Mike Sirius:→ Website: https://www.mikesirius.com→ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/msirius/For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email [email protected] us ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ and check our community at https://masteringtechgrowth.com/

Today, Mike is joined by Ben Buaron, Founder & CEO of Windmill Growth. They help founders turn their LinkedIn into their number one growth channel. No hacks, no influencer playbooks, just real, sustainable visibility that brings in leads, builds credibility and opens doors. Ben’s been a founder himself and now teaches others how to stop hiding behind logos and leverage LinkedIn to build trust. Ben and Mike unpack why visibility beats marketing and how to make organic LinkedIn work for you, even if you're just getting started. KEY TAKEAWAYS You don´t need more marketing, you need visibility, which even a new startup can get on LinkedIn. Founder-led marketing is the future. Position yourself as a thought leader and focus on top-of-funnel content. Provide value and share your unique insights and opinions. Content strategy and consistency matter more than perfect writing. Stick to your posting timetable - 2-5 times a week is ideal. Use AI, but only to refine your content. Engagement is about quality, not quantity. Build relationships - avoid aggressive sales tactics. Trigger emotions through storytelling to drive engagement and long-term connection. LinkedIn is a long-term game. It takes 6-9 months to build your personal brand and generate leads. Organic content and personal branding can generate leads and revenue more cost-effectively than traditional advertising methods. BEST MOMENTS 00.05 "Early-stage founders think that slow growth means that they need more funnels, more content, more ads, and they tend to forget that people don't buy from perfect branding. They buy from people they trust." 5.03 "If I'm not posting on LinkedIn, I'm not exposing myself, I'm not exposing my company." 5.41 "I got inbounds from LinkedIn that generated me 12k in MRR in a single month. Just because I was putting myself out there." 13.15 "I prefer to have 1 billion people say, 'This guy built it,' than have $1 billion because of the power of 1 billion people." 36.17 “If was easy everyone would do it.” 47.51 “ You engage with your ICP’s content and your competitor’s content, and everyone else in your space’s content.” 20.15 "I generated $85,000 in June just from making really good content and combining outreach." 1.00.51 “A really good hook – a short hook that includes the word I or We, works.” If you enjoyed the show, please do me a favour - Hit that subscribe button and send me your growth challenges at https://masteringtechgrowth.com . I really want to know what you're working on and what keeps you up at night. ABOUT THE GUEST https://www.windmillgrowth.com ABOUT THE HOST Meet Mike, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and visionary with over two and a half decades of invaluable experience in founding and scaling successful tech start-ups. Mike brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge, and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and tech professionals. As a host, Mike is dedicated to sharing actionable insights, strategies, and stories gathered from conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and experts. With a remarkable ability to distil practical wisdom from guests, Mike curates engaging discussions that resonate with both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals. This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

For today’s episode, Mike is joined by the father of SEO, Bruce Clay. Since 1996 he's been helping businesses get found online. He has taught 1000s of marketers and written several go-to SEO books. All while creating SEO strategies for brands like Netflix, eBay and Home Depot. Now he's focused on helping teams adapt their content for AI to stay visible as search evolves. You’ll learn all about AI Optimisation (AIO) - how to ensure your brand, products and services are included in the answers given by all of the major LLMs and about modern SEO. KEY TAKEAWAYS Ranking 1st in Google doesn´t guarantee you get seen. You need to be in the AI-generated answers too. AI uses search engine rankings to determine authority. If you don´t rank high, you won´t be in the AI results either. Good SEO and E-E-A-T (authority and trust) are vital. Well researched user question centred content that provides a full solution improves E-E-A-T and is good for AI Optimisation (AIO). Your content must be tailored to answer the specific needs and pain points for each user group (persona). Technical SEO and content structure matters. Bruce explains how to get them right. Use clear headers, short paragraphs, and create content that is easily readable by both humans and AI crawlers. Invest in your digital presence now. Optimize for multiple search features, including local packs, People Also Ask and AI. BEST MOMENTS 01:00 "The real game is getting into the AI generated answers and not just in the list of search results?" 14.13 “If you want to be considered for the AIO, you have to rank organically, and you have to provide an answer that is deliberate to the question.” 17.13 “Personalization is going to totally change how AI answers a question, and that poses a serious problem.” 29.16 "AI is a tool, not a solution, and you've got to use it that way." 37.01 “AIs will not select you as an authority to be presented as this potential answer if you're not already really ranking in Google.” 44.39 “You need a site that can be spidered.” 46.06 “Your listeners have to care about where their brand is going to be represented in Google search, in one year, not today,.” 1.11.31 “Identify the pain, identify the persona, identify what they buy, and then emphasise that as almost a cluster or silo within your website.” 1.22.31 “I think that voice search is going to be really big.” If you enjoyed the show, please do me a favour - Hit that subscribe button and send me your growth challenges at https://masteringtechgrowth.com . I really want to know what you're working on and what keeps you up at night. ABOUT THE GUEST https://www.bruceclay.com https://www.seotraining.com https://www.prewriter.ai ABOUT THE HOST Meet Mike, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and visionary with over two and a half decades of invaluable experience in founding and scaling successful tech start-ups. Mike brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge, and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and tech professionals. As a host, Mike is dedicated to sharing actionable insights, strategies, and stories gathered from conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and experts. With a remarkable ability to distil practical wisdom from guests, Mike curates engaging discussions that resonate with both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals. This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

For today’s episode, Mike is joined by Natasha Walstra, the founder and CEO of Near Point Strategies. She helps founders turn relationships into revenue using Smart Content, Strategic Outreach and the network they already have. Her clients don't chase followers. They get sales calls, replies, and gain real momentum just by showing up with the right message to the right people. She built this approach after leading brand strategy at Carbon and Forbes Books. Natasha explains how she and her clients turn LinkedIn conversations and connections into clients, every day. KEY TAKEAWAYS LinkedIn DMs have a 10% response rate compared to email outreach at 5%. Focus on building real relationships on LinkedIn. A high follower count means nothing if none of them buy from you. People use LinkedIn to get to know you and work out if they can trust you, so be authentic. Surround yourself with people who you know need your services. Collaborating with others is a powerful way to network and provide value. Spray and pray doesn´t work anymore. Don´t DM out of nowhere. Provide value, don´t just try to sell. It is far easier than you think to consistently create content that connects and has an impact. Natasha shares several strategies during the episode. Use AI to help you create e.g. Give it an idea, some context and a template to create content. Edit and post it. AI can help you to become a good copywriter. Gain insights into turning your existing professional network into potential business opportunities Video is powerful. Natasha explains how to use it even if you are shy about doing it. Just posting content leads nowhere. You have to engage in conversations, make thoughtful comments and have a reason to DM someone. BEST MOMENTS 1.50 "Most people treat LinkedIn growth as a numbers game: more posts, more views, more followers. But, what if you don't need more strangers in your network." 3.17 “Genuine relationships that lead to real revenue, that's growth. Not a bunch of likes.” 23.26 “Find a genuine reason to actually open a conversation with someone…cold outreach doesn’t work anymore.” 37.03 "Think about your audience, and do they need to hear from you seven days a week?" 49.10 "If you're not feeling inspired that day, then don't post... posting for posting's sake is going to lead to frustration and burnout." 1.04.03 "It's about building relationships. Little things open so many doors." If you enjoyed the show, please do me a favour - Hit that subscribe button and send me your growth challenges at https://masteringtechgrowth.com . I really want to know what you're working on and what keeps you up at night. ABOUT THE GUEST https://www.linkedin.com/in/ndwalstra https://nearpointstrategies.com Newsletter : https://nearpoint-strategies.kit.com/subscribe ABOUT THE HOST Meet Mike, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and visionary with over two and a half decades of invaluable experience in founding and scaling successful tech start-ups. Mike brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge, and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and tech professionals. As a host, Mike is dedicated to sharing actionable insights, strategies, and stories gathered from conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and experts. With a remarkable ability to distil practical wisdom from guests, Mike curates engaging discussions that resonate with both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals. This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

For today’s episode, Mike is joined by leadership and innovation consultant, Elizabeth Bieniek. The tech visionary who co-founded WebEx Hologram at Cisco and was named one of the topmost influential female founders by TechCrunch. Elizabeth helps founders and teams stay clear on their why, so they can make better choices and grow with purpose. KEY TAKEAWAYS Solve real human problems instead of just creating innovative features. Schedule regular, uninterrupted strategic thinking time. When deciding where to focus, ask – will this matter to the operation in a week´s time or several months’ time? Hold monthly team and quarterly offsite strategy meetings to avoid mission drift. Writing down your goals and thoughts, by hand, provides you with clarity. Use journaling extensively. Innovation isn't always about creating something entirely new but about solving existing problems in more efficient or creative ways. Taking action is more important than perfect planning. Start small, test your ideas, and be willing to course-correct quickly. Make the workplace fun and more human. Speak to 35 different people when doing research. That diversity of thought is revealing. Understand what your employees truly value. Hire and manage based on thinking and potential. Focus on developing your strengths rather than fixing every weakness. Delegate. Get out of your own head and just do it. Always ask why something is done a certain way. In many cases, the reason will no longer be valid. BEST MOMENTS 2.00 "Tech is always about the why? It's always about people first." 6.00 "Don't start running until you realize what direction you're going and who's carrying the water." 9.57 "Be bored for a while, because that's when your brain kicks in. You come up with a really cool idea." 21.29 “Teams get very demotivated when you don't have milestones, you don't have phases.” 28.32 “I think everyone needs to be very aligned to their contribution and how their contribution impacts the whole because otherwise you're just plugging code.” 37.22 “The technology needs to serve the purpose that you're trying to accomplish.” 40.25 “You can literally gamify anything. You can make anything fun.” 52.57 "Innovation is really just doing something differently." 56.04 "Action trumps everything." 1.05.33 “It´s the moment, taking an intentional pause every day.” 1.07.43 "I'm not hiring you to punch a timecard and fill a certain number of hours. I'm hiring you because of the way you think." If you enjoyed the show, please do me a favour - Hit that subscribe button and send me your growth challenges at https://masteringtechgrowth.com. I really want to know what you're working on and what keeps you up at night. ABOUT THE GUEST https://cakeontuesday.com ABOUT THE HOST Meet Mike, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and visionary with over two and a half decades of invaluable experience in founding and scaling successful tech start-ups. Mike brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge, and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and tech professionals. As a host, Mike is dedicated to sharing actionable insights, strategies, and stories gathered from conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and experts. With a remarkable ability to distil practical wisdom from guests, Mike curates engaging discussions that resonate with both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals. This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

For today’s episode, Mike is joined by Matthew Stafford, managing partner of Build Grow Scale, who has helped hundreds of e-commerce stores hit eight figures, including brands like Organifi and Pink Lily. They unpack taking e-commerce businesses from traffic-burning money pits to revenue-generating machines. Matthew shares data-driven strategies, smart conversion optimisation techniques, and a customer-centric approach that has taken numerous businesses from zero to six figures without additional ad spend. KEY TAKEAWAYS Traffic without conversion is a money pit. Data-driven decisions are always effective. Collect, collate, and present your data in a usable format that most people can quickly interpret. Customer search data reveals hidden product opportunities worth $100,000s. Simplify your website. Simplification scales. Build a website for the consumer, not you. A granny or 5-year-old should be able to buy from you. Know how often people come back and buy. Use Mathew's unique follow up approach for cart abandonment. Overselling in the cart hurts conversions. Use heat maps, recordings and A/B testing to reveal weak spots. Once fixed, they translate into $millions of extra sales. Each demographic browses differently. Personalisation, when not done in a creepy way, boosts conversions. Don't overwhelm customers with too many choices e.g. 15 colours. Speed up your website. Video sells. Treat customers like humans, not sales targets. Outstanding customer service is key to repeat business. BEST MOMENTS 00.38 "Traffic without conversions is essentially a money pit." 2.13.18 "If your tech stack is not organized in a way that is usable … it´s garbage in, garbage out." 11.34.54 “The number two searched item was unicorn, spelled wrong. They didn't have a unicorn for a stuffed animal, so they built one… On Amazon Prime Day, it did $498,000.” 25.02.06 “Have a website that’s really good at communicating with your customers. It's having a conversation when you're not around.” 39.36.07 “If you're not capturing at least 25% of your revenue from email … something's broken.” 1.06.23 “ Add the phone number or an email, you'll increase conversions, it´s trust.” 1.09.38 "The more complex you make the task, the less of them (customers) will do it again." 1.12.47 "Stop trying to beat them over the head to make more sales. Just treat them like a human, like you would want to be treated." If you enjoyed the show, please do me a favour - Hit that subscribe button and send me your growth challenges at https://masteringtechgrowth.com . I really want to know what you're working on and what keeps you up at night. ABOUT THE GUEST https://buildgrowscale.com/ https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pre-Suasion-Revolutionary-Way-Influence-Persuade/dp/1847941435 ABOUT THE HOST Meet Mike, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and visionary with over two and a half decades of invaluable experience in founding and scaling successful tech start-ups. Mike brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge, and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and tech professionals. As a host, Mike is dedicated to sharing actionable insights, strategies, and stories gathered from conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and experts. With a remarkable ability to distil practical wisdom from guests, Mike curates engaging discussions that resonate with both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals. This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

For today’s episode, Mike is joined by Tim O'Hearn, a software engineer, former Black Hat growth practitioner, and the author of Framed a Villain's Perspective on Social Media. For many years, Tim’s been inside the system, building tools that successfully manipulated feeds, scaled fake social media engagement and exploited attention at a mass scale. It is fair to say Tim has his finger on the pulse when it comes to what works on social media and what doesn´t. Yet, the approach he now advocates may surprise you. KEY TAKEAWAYS Mastering tech growth means capturing as much of the audience as is feasible Understand the difference between a founder brand and a business brand and don´t mix the two. Stop chasing virality. Searcher intent matters more than you think. It´s now almost impossible to reverse engineer and beat the algorithm. If you try, it raises black flags. Most social media platforms do not allow the use of automation tools; some can even be illegal. Some social media platforms shadow ban you which makes you less visible when they see guidelines being breached. You will have a trust score on social media. Tim explains how to protect that score. Taking the time you normally spend scrolling through socials and using it to tackle a big project is an incredibly powerful way to step up your game. Personalised outreach works; it outstrips everything else. Algorithm engineers are the new lobbyists. BEST MOMENTS 5.15 - "It's becoming surprisingly easy to start something. And then it becomes this game of attention online." 15.51 - "Often times chasing it (virality) means compromising the values of your brand." 21.00 - "Generative AI is a big problem." 36.07 "To my knowledge, in 2025 automation, in the general sense, is forbidden by most social media platforms." 53.08 "Even for us, we don't have a great way of identifying shadow bans as they happen." 55.17 "If you try to grey hat or black hat, it might just lead to you losing all your efforts to grow that account." 1.15.15 "That same (anti-terrorism) technology could very easily be used for mass censorship or surveillance of dissenting opinions. I think that is happening. I just don't know to what extent.” 1.26.35 "Personalized outreach is really, really important." 1.39.40 "An email list is the greatest safeguard against a platform banning you, or you getting de-platformed." If you enjoyed the show, please do me a favour - Hit that subscribe button and send me your growth challenges at https://masteringtechgrowth.com I really want to know what you're working on and what keeps you up at night. ABOUT THE GUEST Book - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Framed-Villains-Perspective-Social-Media-ebook/dp/B0DW2X8YSK https://www.linkedin.com/in/tohearn ABOUT THE HOST Meet Mike, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and visionary with over two and a half decades of invaluable experience in founding and scaling successful tech start-ups. Mike brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge, and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and tech professionals. As a host, Mike is dedicated to sharing actionable insights, strategies, and stories gathered from conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and experts. With a remarkable ability to distil practical wisdom from guests, Mike curates engaging discussions that resonate with both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals. This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

For today’s episode, Mike is joined by Amir Barsoum, who is the founder or co-founder of multiple highly successful businesses including Vezeeta, a leading digital healthcare platform, and In-Vitro Capital. Instead of looking for founders to invest in, Amir starts with a problem, looks for a solution, finds the right experts to solve that problem, and then builds the company.  Amir walks us through how this works, why most people get things wrong and what it takes to build scalable AI-powered companies from scratch. If you enjoyed the show, please do me a favour - hit that subscribe button and send me your growth challenges at https://masteringtechgrowth.com . I really want to know what you're working on and what keeps you up at night. KEY TAKEAWAYS Building products that customers are almost compelled to pick is key to mastering tech growth. Referrals are rocket fuel. You can’t beat others speaking enthusiastically about how your product solved their problems. Find solutions for boring industries and niche down. There are lots of opportunities and far less competition. Invest time and money into validating the problem before developing a solution. The CEO must be strong in sales or engineering.  Sales focuses on building relationships with customers, fully understanding their problems and the practicality of your solution.  The engineer has a strong knowledge, often hands on, of the problem and the necessary expertise to identify, influence and deliver the solution. Access to a strong base of clients and customers is essential. Track your cash flow every day. AI will massively grow markets, which is why it won´t cause unemployment. AI agents will need to be managed. Build AI with tomorrow´s far lower costs in mind. Every employee should be doing outreach every day. They need contact with the market. BEST MOMENTS "Amir starts with an idea, a solution to a problem and only then finds the right experts to deliver it and turn it into a company."  "The real growth comes from referrals."  "A good CEO is either sales or engineer, anything else to us is a waste of time and effort." "Sales is the capacity to build bridges with your clients." "Take an LLM, train it on your own information and data, so the decisions it will be making will be without the potential for hallucination."  "You structure the data in a way that feeds your AI agents, so you end up with better agents." "We´re very generous with the equity of a hired CEO and we call them founder." "They´re not just moving with the herd …. They're very good leaders." ABOUT THE GUEST https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirmbarsoum [email protected] [email protected] ABOUT THE HOST Meet Mike, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and visionary with over two and a half decades of invaluable experience in founding and scaling successful tech start-ups. Mike brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge, and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and tech professionals. As a host, Mike is dedicated to sharing actionable insights, strategies, and stories gathered from conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and experts. With a remarkable ability to distil practical wisdom from guests, Mike curates engaging discussions that resonate with both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals.  This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

For today’s episode, Mike is joined by Michael Schank, the founder of Process Inventory Advisors and the author of Digital Transformation Success. For over two decades, Michael has helped companies clean up the way they work so they can grow without the chaos. Today, Michael walks us through his process and inventory framework. He breaks down the simple steps most startups skip which lead to small bits of waste within their processes that have a huge impact on their growth. KEY TAKEAWAYS If you don´t map your processes you are wasting a huge amount of time, energy and money. Start by process mapping one small area of your business. Then expand from there. Michael shares his process mapping technique in detail. Process mapping reveals everything that a company does and aligns all areas of the business. Lead times cripple businesses, and process mapping reveals these bottlenecks and waste. You will be surprised by the overlap between teams and misalignment. Involving every single person in process mapping actively encourages innovation and hugely improves engagement at all levels. Complex environments lead to a lack of agility. Process mapping ensures you use the fewest tools and the right ones. Once you know your processes, you can immediately see what can be automated. Documented processes enable you to train AI on how your business really works and ensures you do not feed AI garbage data. AI hallucination is still an issue, so you have to double check it. Startups need to be more intentional about how they grow. BEST MOMENTS 1.29 "Small bits of waste in processes can have a huge impact on growth." 14.21 "It all has to look and feel the same, so that you can read a process inventory for any group without needing a decoder ring." 27.25 "There's democratic innovation, where you recognize that every employee has some level of expertise in what they do, and if you can tap into that, you drive innovation into every process.” 41.52 "Having that full map gives you all the details you need to choose the right processes to automate." 42.38 "AI delivers its biggest benefits when built on structured and consistent operational data. Otherwise, it amplifies inconsistencies." 1.01.15 "If you make all the data transparent, and you make the accountability very strong, now you're distributing it across everybody." If you enjoyed the show, please do me a favour - hit that subscribe button and send me your growth challenges at https://masteringtechgrowth.com . I really want to know what you're working on and what keeps you up at night. GUEST'S LINKS LinkedIn - www.linkedin.com/in/michael-schank My book - https://a.co/d/7WAR6qa My website - ProcessInventory.com ABOUT THE GUEST https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-schank https://processinventory.com Book - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Digital-Transformation-Success-Achieving-Delivering-ebook/dp/B0CKSF1Z94 ABOUT THE HOST Meet Mike, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and visionary with over two and a half decades of invaluable experience in founding and scaling successful tech start-ups. Mike brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge, and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and tech professionals. As a host, Mike is dedicated to sharing actionable insights, strategies, and stories gathered from conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and experts. With a remarkable ability to distil practical wisdom from guests, Mike curates engaging discussions that resonate with both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals.  This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

Do you want to know what separates the startups that get funded from the ones that don´t? Today, Mike is joined by Alexandra Nicoletti, a partner at Camber Creek, one of the leading VC firms. Prior to this, Alexandra was in real estate and private equity at Apollo and worked in investment banking at Goldman Sachs.  Alexandra has seen every version of a pitch you can imagine. Today she breaks down exactly how to target the right investors, prepare a winning pitch, deliver it and follow up. KEY TAKEAWAYS Mastering Tech Growth is about continually optimising the growth of your business. VCs now focus more on how strong the founding team is than they do on the product idea. Growth at all costs is no longer viable. Be clear about what your customer´s pain point is and why you decided there was money to be made from solving it. Tool change is painful for corporations. Demonstrate that what you offer represents an improvement that makes it worth going through that pain. Your investors become your partners, so it is vital they are a good fit. It´s no longer possible to ride the AI wave, it´s becoming old. Head in the cloud pitches don´t work. Be realistic and honest. Clearly identify who your customer will be. Pre-revenue startups can still raise funds. User testing, social proof and pilots are strong signs of traction. Briefly outline your go to market strategy during the pitch. If you can´t convince a VC they will not believe you can sell to a customer. BEST MOMENTS 2:27 "Every decision comes with a trade-off, particularly in the early stages." 7.00 “What VCs are looking for right now is smart growth. It's not growth at all costs.” 9:55 "At the end of the day, we're investing in the people. Less so the product." 10.22 "VCs will invest in a B+ idea with an A+ founding team versus an A+ idea, with a B+ founding team." 24.21 "We don’t need more generic wrappers for ChatGPT. What we do need is fresh perspectives….people doing things differently. " 32.05 "If you can’t sell to an investor, how will you sell to a customer?" 34.33 “Having put some thought into things like go to market is really important.” 41.41 "Founder relationships are a key reason why companies run into issues down the road.” 59.53 "Saying you're 100% going to IPO in five years … that is a red flag."  1.05.43 “I do not want to spend time watching a video demo of the product.” 1.14.53 “I want to know how much you're spending and what you're spending it on.” If you enjoyed the show, please do me a favour - hit that subscribe button and send me your growth challenges at https://masteringtechgrowth.com . I really want to know what you're working on and what keeps you up at night. ABOUT THE GUEST https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandra-nicoletti-a205ab11 https://cambercreek.com https://www.linkedin.com/company/camber-creek/ ABOUT THE HOST Meet Mike, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and visionary with over two and a half decades of invaluable experience in founding and scaling successful tech start-ups. Mike brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge, and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and tech professionals. As a host, Mike is dedicated to sharing actionable insights, strategies, and stories gathered from conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and experts. With a remarkable ability to distil practical wisdom from guests, Mike curates engaging discussions that resonate with both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals.  This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

If you're serious about scaling without relying on paid ads, this episode is for you. Today, Mike is joined by Ben Sharf, co-founder of Platter, creator of 160+ Shopify storefronts, angel investor, and host of Turning Pro. He breaks down how shifting from company marketing to founder-led storytelling can be your biggest growth hack. Founders don’t win because their posts are perfect—or because they pour money into ads. They win because people buy from people, not logos. In 2025, founder-led content is the fastest, leanest way to build trust, drive growth, and scale—without breaking the bank. Ben shares how he did exactly that. KEY TAKEAWAYS Tech growth is about figuring out what you are good at and leaning into it. That´s your superpower. Ben scaled Platter without spending $1 on ads and with zero cold calling. People buy from people, not logos, founder led content is the fastest, most sustainable way to build trust, attract customers and scale. The story needs to be authentic, resonate and must be told by the founder themselves. People forget quickly. They only remember your last couple of posts. You have to post consistently to reinforce your message. Some of your biggest future customers will be silently following you. A content led strategy requires a lot of touch points before people buy. Lead with value, build a relationship and trust. Most of your content should not be salesy. To be memorable use the contrarian perspective.  If you are selling to other businesses, focus on LinkedIn. Engage with people who engage with your posts. BEST MOMENTS 00.37 “People buy from people, not logos. In 2025, founder led content is the fastest, most sustainable way to build trust, attract customers and scale.” 03:12 "We´ve never spent $1 on an ad yet."  8:24 "Focus on what you're good at. Get really good at it and find someone else to do the things you're not good at." 15:00 " 99% of the time people don´t get started (with social media) because they're scared of being judged by others."  16.40 “People follow founders who post content because they fall in love with their story and they want to support them and become an advocate for them.” 17.10 “It takes a couple of seconds to break the trust, but it takes years to build it.” 32.18 “We've landed some of our largest investors and some of our best hires all through founder led content.” 48.00 “If you're asking, and it's just not happening it could simply be because you're not solving problems for people.” 51.25 “Don't overthink it. Start sharing and the quality will come with iteration.” ABOUT THE GUEST https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-sharf-b554a5b3 https://www.platter.com ABOUT THE HOST Meet Mike, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and visionary with over two and a half decades of invaluable experience in founding and scaling successful tech start-ups. Mike brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge, and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and tech professionals. As a host, Mike is dedicated to sharing actionable insights, strategies, and stories gathered from conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and experts. With a remarkable ability to distil practical wisdom from guests, Mike curates engaging discussions that resonate with both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals.  https://masteringtechgrowth.com [email protected] This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

For today´s episode, Mike is joined by Mike Todasco a visiting fellow at San Diego State University and former director of Innovation at PayPal. Mike holds over 100 patents and has a passion for leveraging AI to get things done fast. If you are a solopreneur who wants to scale quickly without building a team, this episode is very much for you. KEY TAKEAWAYS AI genuinely can super charge your business. Experiment to get the most out of AI. When it comes to mastering tech growth experimentation is key. According to McKenzie, businesses can use AI to eliminate 60 to 70% of their tasks. Use an AI bracelet to record what you do each day. Eliminate the tasks that are no longer necessary and aim to automate the rest.  Use tools like make.com to start automating app-based tasks. It may take time to get each task automation to work, so you need to be persistent. You can outline a task to Zapier, and it will create a workflow of automation for you to tweak. Find a space or activity that lets you switch off fully and really think e.g. running or driving. That´s when the ideas flow. Pick an AI tool and go with it, learn it throughly. Once you´ve done that you will be able to master other AI tools far faster. Automate tasks that are expensive to outsource. Mike shares some surprising use cases. Empower the people who work for you with AI tools.  Explore Notebook LLM for content creation. It relies solely on the sources you give it. Use reinforcement learning to get the most out of AI. The more feedback you give it the better. ChatGPT can now remember your previous chats, which means it can now learn about you, your preferences, what you are working, the language you like to use and more. Use AI in your day-to-day life e.g. to create your training routines BEST MOMENTS 00.57 "The majority of solopreneurs use AI without a system, no workflow, no structure, no AI leverage."  5.23 "Embrace your inner child, you need to experiment, you need to try stuff, you need to fail. That´s how you work with these AI tools."  13.08 "If you are not occasionally adding steps back into your processes that means you are not removing enough."  26.24 “The thing that kills ideation is having a phone. You just think oh god I´m so bored, I need to go on TikTok.” 38.26 “Just pick one AI tool and go with it. All of them are so darn good.” 52.16 “According to MIT Sloan, AI systems perform much better when they are treated as collaboration partners.” 1.02.16 “Find the tasks which are low hanging fruits, quick wins, which should not be done by hand.” ABOUT THE GUEST https://www.linkedin.com/in/todasco https://www.bee.computer – AI bracelet ABOUT THE HOST Meet Mike, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and visionary with over two and a half decades of invaluable experience in founding and scaling successful tech start-ups. Mike brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge, and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and tech professionals. As a host, Mike is dedicated to sharing actionable insights, strategies, and stories gathered from conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and experts. With a remarkable ability to distil practical wisdom from guests, Mike curates engaging discussions that resonate with both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals.  This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

Today, Mike is joined by Quentin de Quelen the CEO and cofounder of Meilisearch, one of the fastest growing open-source search engines, which can easily be integrated into websites and applications. Quentin helps companies create fast, customisable, typo-proof search experiences.   Today, for research, 46% of Gen Z prefer Instagram and TikTok. YouTube is now the go-to for tutorials and reviews, while ChatGPT, Perplexity, Voice Assistant, etc. are also popular. In an environment like that, you have to ask yourself, "How are people going to find me and find what they need from me?" This episode has the answers. KEY TAKEAWAYS How people search and the evolution of the tools they use changes monthly. Most of the time, you can still impact how you appear in the various search interfaces. Consumers are increasingly in discovery mode; they are no longer simply looking for one specific thing. E.g. They are less likely to type in a specific trainer; they want to know what is available and choose from there. Meilisearch is very good at ascertaining the intent of the search and delivering results based on that. The structure of our website data will change to facilitate LLMs, Quentin explains why MCPs are likely to play a role. Having very intentional pages on your website helps to better control what content ChatGPT etc uses to answer users’ questions. There is very little difference between how you target voice searches and LLM searches, but the response needs to differ. To glean invaluable information about your customers, analyse all of your user queries and their search intent. Meilisearch is particularly good for this. Use your query results to create better adaptive content. Keep your data clean to make it easier to search. To build user trust, be transparent and provide sources. Schema still helps to organize data. Consider using LLM.txt. In the LLM age, c**p site content is even more damaging. Use as many formats as possible for your content, including video. BEST MOMENTS 3:42 "Search, today, is moving quite fast…now it´s changing every month."  6:48 "Whatever the medium, there is always transcription to a final search that will be made."  14:07 "You don´t want to let ChatGPT call your website, find whatever results and showcase it all to users."  21:44 "One intent, one page…works best." 28.33 “Know when not to answer.” 44.11 “People can choose whatever model they prefer …it’s easier to be trusted.” 50.13 “Think about what your user expects and manage your data to look like what your user expects.” 57.01 “Split your pages into relevant segments.” 1.07.25 “Write content that is mindful, content people want to read.” ABOUT THE GUEST https://www.meilisearch.com ABOUT THE HOST Meet Mike, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and visionary with over two and a half decades of invaluable experience in founding and scaling successful tech start-ups. Mike brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge, and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and tech professionals. As a host, Mike is dedicated to sharing actionable insights, strategies, and stories gathered from conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and experts. With a remarkable ability to distil practical wisdom from guests, Mike curates engaging discussions that resonate with both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals.  This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

For today’s episode, Mike is joined by Marcus Fontoura, Azure Core CTO, Technical Fellow at Microsoft, holder of 50 patents and the author of A Platform Mindset. Marcus is certainly a man who knows how to scale tech without breaking it. If your startup is taking off so fast that you can’t keep up or are drowning in bugs and relying on hot fixes and workarounds to hold things together, this episode is for you. It teaches you how to stop scaling your technical debt and redirect your energy and resources into scaling success. KEY TAKEAWAYS Marcus helped to shape some of the planet´s fastest scaling systems, including Google and Yahoo. Disconnected systems slow you down more than missing features. Decide on the technology, platforms, and tools early and get everyone to use them. When you tell developers which tools they will use from day 1 it frees up bandwidth for them to create faster and avoids resentment when you have no choice but to standardise the platforms used. Recognise when it is time to move from the validation stage to the professionalisation stage. Invest in infrastructure and tools that are easy to scale as demand rises. Avoid over engineering. Make sure all of your systems integrate to avoid silos and repeating work. Marcus explains how. Most startups (75%) fail because they scale too fast. On average, a day per week per developer is wasted fixing poorly planned and implemented code etc. Creating a high performing team culture is the key to fast and efficient growth. People don´t change easily that is why you need to cultivate sound cultural values, communication, trust, collaboration, willingness to take feedback etc.  Protect your company values even when hyper scaling.  Don’t hire brilliant jerks, they pull everyone down.  Cultural skills are hard to teach, but most tech skills can be taught in months. The CEO needs to be a good role model. Build trust and collaboration between teams. BEST MOMENTS 1:09 "The fix? It starts with the platform mindset."  4:30 "Tech growth equals preparing for scaling."  16.33 "Developers waste 23% of their time…reworking bad past solutions." 30.00 "Recognise what you don´t know and pull in people who can actually help you."  43.12 "Understand the phase you are in… and scale accordingly."  50.11 "Any system you build should have inbound and outbound APIs."  54.25 "The culture enables a lot of efficiency when teams trust each other."  1.08.11 "When you are ready for hyper growth…hire the best talent you can get."  1.16.30 “Have a growth mindset to build a culture to leverage platforms for impact.” ABOUT THE GUEST https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcusfontoura Multipliers Book - https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/Liz-Wiseman/author/B00369WNUW Ideal Team Member - https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/Patrick-Lencioni/author/B001ILFMB2 ABOUT THE HOST Meet Mike, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and visionary with over two and a half decades of invaluable experience in founding and scaling successful tech start-ups. Mike brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge, and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and tech professionals. As a host, Mike is dedicated to sharing actionable insights, strategies, and stories gathered from conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and experts. With a remarkable ability to distil practical wisdom from guests, Mike curates engaging discussions that resonate with both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals. 

For today’s episode, Mike is joined by Graham Riley, a LinkedIn strategist, speaker, and founder of LinkedIn Enterprises. For 20+ years, Graham has been helping B2B companies generate millions in revenue using LinkedIn. His strategies don´t just get you likes; they drive deals. He and Mike discuss how you need to respond to drastic algorithm changes, why your execs need to engage on LinkedIn, quickly create content, take advantage of LinkedIn visitor data that many people are not even aware of, and much more. KEY TAKEAWAYS The majority of LinkedIn advice is out of date. LinkedIn is not just another social media platform or a resume repository. It is a sales generator. Engagement is the key to leveraging LinkedIn. Respond to your comments and do it properly. Comments that elevate what was said and add value are the most effective. 75% of visitors to Graham´s profile visit after reading his comments. Your execs' silence is hurting your brand visibility. Execs want to hear from thought leaders, from other execs. LinkedIn enables your execs to connect, build awareness, trust and belief. With LinkedIn, you have to take a strategic approach. Use business impact language. Say the right things to the right audience at the right time to generate curiosity in your ability to solve the problem. Create a great LinkedIn profile by consistently doing a series of little things right. Marketing, sales and product delivery are all a part of acquiring a customer and turning them into a repeat customer. Recently, the algorithm changed. If your posts have no interaction, they will not be seen. Engaging with comments the right way is essential. Train AI train well, use the right AI tools and do it well. Take your business whitepaper, distil it and turn it into snackable content. Keep repeating your messages. If you don´t, people forget. BEST MOMENTS 1:47 "Graham is the only guest who has managed to get 400 people tuned in for this LinkedIn event, normally it is about 200 people."  5:30 “People trust people…content from individuals especially executives builds more trust."  10:53 "The power comes when all of those components are working in harmony with each other, just like in a car." 32.44 “LinkedIn is telling you that you should care about how much your comment is getting seen.” 46.00 “How you behave and communicate with me is shaping my perception of how much attention I should pay.” 1.03.04 “Somebody with a free profile can generate opportunities, but it’s much harder.” 1.06.12 “Use your LinkedIn profile to mimic the professional behaviours that you would have at a trade show or conference.” 1.11.14 “ Around 75% of the people who visit my profile have come from the comments that I've made.” ABOUT THE GUEST https://www.linkedin.com/in/grahamkeithriley ABOUT THE HOST Meet Mike, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and visionary with over two and a half decades of invaluable experience in founding and scaling successful tech start-ups. Mike brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge, and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and tech professionals. As a host, Mike is dedicated to sharing actionable insights, strategies, and stories gathered from conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and experts. With a remarkable ability to distil practical wisdom from guests, Mike curates engaging discussions that resonate with both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals. 

For today’s episode, Mike is joined by Chris Silvestri, the founder of Conversion Alchemy. Chris helps B2B SaaS companies break through the noise, reach more would-be customers and show them why they are the obvious choice. Chris’s carefully honed approach uses the alchemy of copy, UX, and decision-making psychology to turn browsers and visitors into loyal, paying customers. He digs deep into customer research, pulls out real insights, who your real buyer is, what their buying decision making process is and determine what language will resonate with them, so that your message lands and converts. KEY TAKEAWAYS Mastery is about going deeper than your competition. Invest in customer research. You can't write copy that converts without it. Build a repeatable research process. There are layers to research.  The surface layer of research is reviews and competitors’ products. The deeper layers include the customer experience while using a product like yours and why customers behave as they do. Focus on the individual decisions customers make during their buying journey and why they make them. Uncover your unique narrative by asking customers what they think existing providers are doing wrong.  Use reviews to understand the language your customers use. Your copy needs to resonate with – daily users, the purchasing decision maker and the check signer. Use AI combined with human data to simulate personas. Chris explains how and which tools to use. According to HubSpot, 72% of SaaS websites fail to clearly explain what they offer. Get your value proposition right. Blend features with benefits. Test and tweak your copy. To truly connect with people, use their language, their pain points and their motivations. Be clear on what you do, how you do it and who you do it for. BEST MOMENTS 1.14 "People underestimate the power of good copy when it comes to conversions."  3:25 "Invest more in research."  6:36 "The deep-seated layer tells you why customers make the decisions they make and how they make them."  15:24 "To uncover your customer´s pain points….reviews are a good starting point." 31:00 "You can make sure that everything it gives is accurate and that it doesn´t hallucinate."  40:40 "You can simulate personas with AI, but not real customer behaviour, at least not yet."  47:73  “Imagine that your copy needs to continue the phrase "I want to … that's your valuable position."  59:00 "The right message basically has the right positioning with the right language for the right audience."  1.05.36 “The best copy is copy that doesn´t look like copy.” ABOUT THE GUEST https://conversionalchemy.net https://www.linkedin.com/in/christophersilvestri https://www.amazon.co.uk/Demand-Side-Sales-101-Customers-Progress/dp/1544509987 ABOUT THE HOST Meet Mike, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and visionary with over two and a half decades of invaluable experience in founding and scaling successful tech start-ups. Mike brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge, and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and tech professionals. As a host, Mike is dedicated to sharing actionable insights, strategies, and stories gathered from conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and experts. With a remarkable ability to distil practical wisdom from guests, Mike curates engaging discussions that resonate with both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals. 

For today’s episode, Mike is joined by Lukas Gentele, CEO and co-founder of Loft Labs, to discuss how to ensure that your open-source project doesn’t end up being one of the 80% that fail. Lukas has successfully launched multiple open-source projects and turned them into profitable businesses. Through this episode, he provides the bones of a framework you can use to do the same. KEY TAKEAWAYS Open source needs to solve real problems, ones that people are willing to pay to have solved. Your open-source product needs to solve problems, but not to the point where nothing is left to build a commercial product that will still attract buyers.You are building 2 tools. Avoid interdepartmental rivalry - don´t silo the development of the two products. The build it and they will come mentality doesn´t work. Write and continuously publish content to increase the chances of your product taking off. Create communities of your own. Use them to better understand who your customers are and what their pain points are now and in the future. Fully engage with users to turn them into contributors. Value ideas and usage insights just as much as coding. Don’t expect your community to build a lot of code. They will, but it will be limited. Recognise those that contribute. Years on, continue to engage with your users, release enhancements and new content to maintain momentum. Continuously update your readme, include a demo video, don´t skimp on the support docs. Without these using your tool becomes too difficult and your reputation suffers. Offer a free trial for paid features. Make the transition from open source to your paid product a no brainer and easy. BEST MOMENTS 00.30 "80% of open-source projects ultimately flop."  02:52 "Focus on the right problem in the right market."  07.47 “When you ship new features and talk about them, you create more and more opportunities.” 22.04 “ There needs to be a balance between what's open source and what's commercial.” 25.32  "That's the beautiful effect of open source; people actually want to work with the folks that built it." 30.12 "You are effectively building two different tools. One is open source, one is enterprise. ." 34.27 "If we had just launched a commercial offering, I don't think we would have a company today." 35.29 “There's a balance between what you open source and what you don’t. You don't want to tip the scale either way." 39.23 "Over 90% of users are consumers, not contributors." 45.29 "These people feel even more engaged with the product. They feel part of this community. They feel part of the project." 58.00 “Your success will equal other people's successes.” ABOUT THE GUEST https://www.vcluster.com https://github.com/loft-sh/vcluster https://slack.vcluster.com  https://www.linkedin.com/in/gentele https://x.com/lukasgentele https://www.loft.sh ABOUT THE HOST Meet Mike, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and visionary with over two and a half decades of invaluable experience in founding and scaling successful tech start-ups. Mike brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge, and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and tech professionals. As a host, Mike is dedicated to sharing actionable insights, strategies, and stories gathered from conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and experts. With a remarkable ability to distil practical wisdom from guests, Mike curates engaging discussions that resonate with both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals. 

Today, Mike is joined by Sam Piliero, founder of The Moonlighters, a marketing agency helping brands scale profitably. Sam and his team break down why most brands struggle to scale their ads, and how small fixes in strategy can make the difference between them running ads that are burning cash and ads that enable firms to scale profitably. Sam explains how to use AI for marketing, work out what strategy is right for your company and which ad platforms are providing the best exposure and ROI, right now. KEY TAKEAWAYS Small changes in strategy can take you from burning cash running ineffective ads to spending a lot less while seeing sales soar. AI combined with manual oversight is now an effective way to craft, monitor and tweak ads. The new Meta UI is going to be transformative. The number of campaigns you should be running changes as you evolve. Nurture your existing customers but dedicate most of your budget to customer acquisition. Setting up your pixels and using that data is vital.  At the start, be everywhere. Gather the data, then focus on the platforms that work best. Leverage all of the channels in the G Suite (Google). Right now, there are lots of opportunities on X for small businesses. Include as many formats as possible in each ad campaign to increase your placement levels. People resonate with stories. Analysing your ROI is essential. Sam explains exactly how to do it. Drill down into what times of the day/week convert best for you. BEST MOMENTS 3:19 "he next six months, we're going to see an acceleration of the use of some of the AI tools."  5:46 "You have to really focus on what's actually functioning the best today, and then focus on six months, nine months, then a year from now."  7:22 "Allow the market to iron things out, be a little bit later in adopting these new things."  9:55 "Companies that scale successfully evolve their customer acquisition model." 12:38 "Early days, it's okay to have even just one or two campaigns."  17.20 “Facebook and Google are the best converting platforms, period, right now.“ 21.01 “Almost every time the geo-located campaigns are outperforming the E-com side because we are targeting a specific cohort of people.“ 25.35 “Whenever big advertisers remove themselves from an ad platform, the cost of advertising decreases drastically.” 26.43 “If you spend the same amount across the board, e.g. $1,000 you would typically be seeing Facebook and Google outperform.” 32.05 “The more value you put in a piece of content, the more views it gets.” 33.16 “Virality is not only unique, it is actually earned.” 42.00 “Don't overreact to slight adjustments in the ad account.” 51.29 “Always focus on minimizing wasted ad spend and reallocating that ad spend to the best possible place.” EPISODE RESOURCES https://themoonlighters.com/techgrowth https://www.youtube.com/@SamPiliero Social - @SamPiliero ABOUT THE HOST Meet Mike, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and visionary with over two and a half decades of invaluable experience in founding and scaling successful tech start-ups. Mike brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge, and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and tech professionals. As a host, Mike is dedicated to sharing actionable insights, strategies, and stories gathered from conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and experts. With a remarkable ability to distil practical wisdom from guests, Mike curates engaging discussions that resonate with both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals. 

For today’s episode, Mike is joined by Marcelo Calbucci, the author of PRFAQ Lab. He has been successfully growing startups for 18+ years and is a former Amazon exec. His book PRFAQ Lab breaks down the framework Amazon uses to determine whether an idea is viable and how to develop it. This framework has helped to ensure that in a world where 92% of start-ups fail, most of Amazon´s succeed. As do other start-ups that use the framework. If you want to learn how to de-risk your startup and build with confidence before you write a single line of code, listen in and turn your ideas into validated and fundable billion-dollar products, services and businesses. KEY TAKEAWAYS 92% of startups fail.  Amazon start-ups use a simple framework called PRFAQ to validate their ideas, align their team and get investors. An approach that has been highly successful, with the majority of their start-ups succeeding. PRFAQ stands for Press Release and Frequently Asked Questions. Using the 7 step Press Release format enables you to identify the problem, who is experiencing the issue, your solution, how it works and how people can get your product.  Writing a press release as if you have already launched the product opens your mind and improves understanding. Manually write your PR. Writing has been scientifically proven to help you think, it activates different sides of the brain. The FAQs you need to include are those that help you to define vision and strategy. Validate your idea before you start coding. If the market does not exist, don´t build it. Understand the job the customer is trying to complete and what steps they are currently following to get it done. Don´t guess. Understanding where to find your customers is a vital part of your research. PRFAQ also works well for services and businesses. It is a great way to align a team and share the vision in an undiluted form. PRFAQ is good for pitching. BEST MOMENTS 3:40 "You have to wear your archaeologist or anthropologist hat and really observe how people work through the problem that you're trying to solve."  7:13 "The best way to address that problem is to eliminate the problem."  12:43 "According to Harvard Business Review, startups that validate … market need for their solution are 2.5 times more likely to succeed." 30.53 “It's not really a customer discovery framework. PRFAQ is a framework that helps you discover what you don't know and helps you to capture and think critically about that.” 47.34 “So, your slides don't have the typical gaps that most pitch decks have.” 48.53 “According to Forbes, startups with well-structured pitch documents are 60% more likely to secure funding.” 52.31 “Every product you know that Amazon has launched over the last 20 years was backed by a PRFAQ.” EPISODE RESOURCES https://www.theprfaq.com ABOUT THE HOST Meet Mike, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and visionary with over two and a half decades of invaluable experience in founding and scaling successful tech start-ups. Mike brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge, and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and tech professionals. As a host, Mike is dedicated to sharing actionable insights, strategies, and stories gathered from conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and experts. With a remarkable ability to distil practical wisdom from guests, Mike curates engaging discussions that resonate with both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals. 

For today’s episode, Mike is joined by Jonathan Mast, the founder of White Beard Strategies. He is a leading voice in AI prompting mastery with over 400,000 followers. Jonathan has helped 1000s of business owners and entrepreneurs unlock AI's full potential using his structured four-step framework. Enabling some of them to experience a 5,000% uptick in their ROI. This episode is a must listen if you want to stop wasting time with bad AI outputs and start getting results that actually move the needle.  KEY TAKEAWAYS Technology is there to be leveraged to make your life and that of others better. Adding value for your customer is where the growth is. Most people are using AI wrong and blaming the tool when they get poor results. AI can´t read your mind, you need to give it context and invite it to ask you for clarification. Give AI an avatar to write as e.g. You are an expert copywriter who specialises in …. One prompt is rarely enough, you need to provide a framework e.g. To write a book, you need to provide hundreds of prompts. It is still hard to get AI to only use the body of knowledge you give it to create content. Mike shares his method for doing this. AI works with a limited amount of memory, so if you give it too many instructions in one go, it soon loses the thread and goes off track. Johnathan shares several ways to get around usage caps and gain access to all of the AI models. Make using AI a win for your team. Learn how to leverage AI. Doing so turns you into a sought-after employee. Do something new each day with AI. To overcome the hallucinations issue. Trust, but verify. When brainstorming with AI, use your voice. Weirdly, you get much better results. It is also good at transcribing. AI does a great job of organizing and contextualizing what is sometimes a very random stream of thought. The fastest way to learn AI is to use it consistently. BEST MOMENTS 00:55 "It´s not AI that´s broken, it´s your prompts."  7:12 "Give the AI permission to ask you clarifying questions.." 21.15 “If we give it too many things to do, it's simply not going to follow through on that… it works best in a prompt if we give it 1, 2 maybe 3 things.” 38.59 ”When you're rolling it out at first, make it a win for your team, not just a win for the company.” 44.29 “Trust but verify.” 46.03 “By giving it (AI) permission to ask you questions, it'll avoid most of those hallucinations.” 51.18 “Have a conversation with AI. Don't expect to give it one prompt and get perfection.” 53.17 “We make too many assumptions that AI will figure it out. In other words, we don't give it enough context.” 57.53 “We are not at a point, nor do I see us ever getting to a point, where AI is that proverbial money tree in the backyard.” ABOUT THE GUEST Personal Website: https://jonathanmast.com White Beard Strategies: https://whitebeardstrategies.com AI Prompting Mastery: https://www.facebook.com/groups/aipromptsforentrepreneurs/    Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jonathanjmast LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanjmast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@jonathanmast_withai Twitter: https://twitter.com/jonathanmast Threads: https://threads.net/@jonathanmast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jonathanmast/ ABOUT THE HOST Meet Mike, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and visionary with over two and a half decades of invaluable experience in founding and scaling successful tech start-ups. Mike brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge, and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and tech professionals. As a host, Mike is dedicated to sharing actionable insights, strategies, and stories gathered from conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and experts. With a remarkable ability to distil practical wisdom from guests, Mike curates engaging discussions that resonate with both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals. 

Mike speaks to Aditya Jain, the co-founder of Passion Fruit and a leading SEO growth strategist who has helped companies move beyond vanity metrics and generate income from their SEO efforts. They discuss why most businesses get SEO wrong and spend too long chasing rankings instead of revenue. Many are targeting high volume low intent keywords. Aditya Jain is going to change the way you think about and use SEO. He provides truly practical advice that works in the modern marketplace. Including how to use AI to improve targeting and speed up content creation and data analysis. KEY TAKEAWAYS Companies waste months chasing rankings instead of revenue by optimizing for high volume, low intent keywords that never lead to sales.  Position yourself to solve your customer’s pain point and target those in your SEO. Regularly review this, Aditya shares some of the tools and framework he uses. Ask your customers what their problems are. Use Aditya´s method to ensure you get honest answers and insights. When it comes to building your website, your North Star is matching user intent Your pages also need to be search engine and AI LLMs (e.g. ChatGPT and Perplexity) friendly. If they are not, your content will not be found online. Write with the intent of answering your customer´s questions, especially when using AI. If you don´t, you will get a high bounce rate, and your traffic will crash. Measure how each page is performing, including the sales generated. Use SEMrush, it is a cheap and quick way to get started. AI enables you to dig deeper into your data and sometimes that of your competitors. Don´t just follow trends, you need to focus on what you really do and want to do. BEST MOMENTS 0:18 "High traffic doesn't pay the bills, conversions do."  00:28 "Understand which keywords actually drive revenue and how to adjust SEO in real time to capture more business."  2:24 "What drives growth is your customer’s pain point, figure that out and position yourself to solve that problem."  7:40 "We actually have a living, breathing document of all the common questions and concerns etc that our customers have."  10:16 "90% of pages receive no organic traffic because they optimise for broad, low intent keywords." 13:28 "Your North Star is not just revenue, it’s actually – am I matching my user's intent and am I building topical authority?" 15:10 "The readability of your code base, etc., is increasingly important." 33.10 "Any marketing strategy that involves producing content or doing SEO just comes down to delivering on customer needs.” 50.17 “Reviewing the data actually just tells you what type of customers want you, and then you choose, is this a customer I actually want?” EPISODE RESOURCES https://www.linkedin.com/in/aditya-j-985a92108/ https://www.getpassionfruit.com ABOUT THE HOST Meet Mike, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and visionary with over two and a half decades of invaluable experience in founding and scaling successful tech start-ups. Mike brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge, and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and tech professionals. As a host, Mike is dedicated to sharing actionable insights, strategies, and stories gathered from conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and experts. With a remarkable ability to distil practical wisdom from guests, Mike curates engaging discussions that resonate with both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals. 

Mike speaks to Peter Kaliuzhny, the founder of GetSales.io, who is an expert on B2B sales. He has closed numerous six figure deals with Fortune 100 companies. Peter leverages LinkedIn and can turn any profile into a lead generation machine, which is free to use. Peter explains how to optimise your LinkedIn profile, create break-through first connection messages and generate inbound profile links. He shares how to understand your customers and use that knowledge to generate massive leads and sales. KEY TAKEAWAYS Greatly boost your earning potential by creating LinkedIn content that showcases your expertise. LinkedIn is a powerful lead generation and sales tool, not just a place to find a job. Tech growth is about leveraging technology to get better results and generate sales. LinkedIn marketing is free. Optimise your LinkedIn profile to gain 30% more views and 3x more engagement. An effective profile reflects your values, your goals and outlines how you can help. LinkedIn marketing is not about spammy DMs that will get you blocked. Make true connections and turn those relationships into sales. Peter doesn’t use LinkedIn SEO – he explains why. Actively drive inbound links to your profile. Peter explains how. Consistently create high-quality content that solves your customer´s pain. Be careful when using automation with LinkedIn. Peter shares how to do it properly. Start slowly and use the same IP. You have seconds to make a positive first impression. Peter shares how to compose your first message. AI can be helpful when creating your initial messages. Humour triggers emotions which helps build a connection. Personalise your message and make it truly relevant to your prospect. Ask people you already know well who they think might be interested in your service. Regularly review and re-balance your network. BEST MOMENTS 1:00 "Master the art of safe and effective LinkedIn outreach." 8:50 "Test, see how the conversation goes…. Don't just pitch something right away, explore it instead."  14:37 "Really connect … if you want to sell, you never sell. You have to think about how you can help them resolve their problem."  15.05 “Optimise your profile, fine tune it so that it is aligned with your goals.” 27.02 “Post really good content, consistently. content that helps them to solve that pain.” 31.46 “You have to identify those leads and understand what you really want …once you do that, you can go for automation.” 48.01 “Never send a wall of text.” 59.29 “Don't ask for a call.” 1.11.03 “Create content related to your job, to your expertise, it is super cool.. you increase the value of yourself….” 1.11.18 “They will be paying you more later on, if you show your expertise.” ABOUT THE GUEST https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaliuzhnypeter ABOUT THE HOST Meet Mike, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and visionary with over two and a half decades of invaluable experience in founding and scaling successful tech start-ups. Mike brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge, and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and tech professionals. As a host, Mike is dedicated to sharing actionable insights, strategies, and stories gathered from conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and experts. With a remarkable ability to distil practical wisdom from guests, Mike curates engaging discussions that resonate with both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals. 

Today, Mike is joined by Sabir Semerkant, a top E-commerce growth strategist, with 25+ years of experience. Over the years he has helped brands like Coca Cola, Canon and Tommy Hilfiger to achieve massive growth. Sabir has turned that expertise into his 8D Method - a step-by-step framework for unlocking scalable, profitable e-commerce growth. His rapid 2x program has helped brands grow by an average of 108% in just 21 days In this episode, Sabir breaks down pricing, marketing, product research and profitability strategies that will transform your online business. He also shares what not to do, his e-commerce sins. KEY TAKEAWAYS 90% of e-commerce startups fail within 120 days. Sabir knows why and how to stop that from happening to you. Be sceptical, there are a lot of scammers actively selling things that will kill your business e.g., toxic backlinks that will mean your business disappears from the search results. Sabir teaches his students to take care of all of the 8 dimensions an E-commerce business needs. Step 1 is optimising your site for customer attention. You have 1.7 seconds to stop the scroll. Landing page speed is critical. Optimise it for your market and the devices they use. Be laser focused and tackle one vital thing at a time. After addressing customer attention, your bestselling product landing pages are next. Master marketing across multiple platforms. Use your data to understand your customers and turn them into repeat buyers.  You need to get people to buy from you at least once every 6 months. Your product pages need to be optimized structurally, for SEO and content. For e-commerce, SEO is vital. You have to put your face on your brand and tell your story. Couponing works, but constantly using promos will bankrupt you. Even small incremental improvements can have a massive cumulative impact, e.g. If you improve by 40% your sales actually increase 3x. BEST MOMENTS 00:39 "E-commerce in 2025 is a battlefield." 02.14 "Tech actually is the thing that helps you elevate and accelerate your growth profitably."  13:25 "As an entrepreneur, you need to have a healthy dose of scepticism.."  21:00 “Don't dwell in the past, … the realities of 2025, are very different from the realities of 2020, and 2022 ." 30.00 “What is the consumer attention span in 2025? - 1.7 seconds.” 41.03 “Most Shopify owners don't know the behaviour of their consumers.” 54.30 “If you're not correcting these problems, it's de-ranking you.” 1.01.36 “When you are doing couponing to that extent, you're robbing yourself of your future.” 1.20.23 “I'm Mr. Miyagi … I'm telling you how to wax on, wax off.” ABOUT THE GUEST https://growthbysabir.com/masteringtechgrowth Harvard Business School article - https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=62855 https://www.luckyorange.com ABOUT THE HOST Meet Mike, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and visionary with over two and a half decades of invaluable experience in founding and scaling successful tech start-ups. Mike brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge, and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and tech professionals. As a host, Mike is dedicated to sharing actionable insights, strategies, and stories gathered from conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and experts. With a remarkable ability to distil practical wisdom from guests, Mike curates engaging discussions that resonate with both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals. 

Mike speaks to Pranav Dalal founder and CEO of Office Beacon, a leader in remote staffing solutions that has grown the company from just five employees in 2001 to 5,500+, without any VC funding. He and Mike talk about how to identify your competitive advantage, leverage it, and how to automate successfully. They also discuss how to create an irresistible hook to break through the noise and get your conversion rate into double figures. Pranav also explains how you can try Office Beacon´s fully managed remote staffing free of charge for an entire month. KEY TAKEAWAYS Businesses that increase customer retention by 5% can boost profits by 25 to 95%. Service is just different levels of speed and price - you can get that anywhere. You've really got to think about those unique things that you can provide. That is your competitive advantage. Your hook has to be unique. If you use the same software as others, your email and LinkedIn titles will look the same as theirs and not get opened. When your hook is right your conversion rate will be in double figures instead of 1 or 2%. Businesses that automate at least 30% of their sales operations experience higher scalability and profitability. But automate gradually. Focus on building trust with your consumers. At Office Beacon, they only automate if they can get payback within a year or so. Work with customers as you make changes, test carefully and roll out gradually. To master tech growth, stay on top of trends and understand how the global climate could affect your business model. Pranav shares how he does this using his Horizon method. BEST MOMENTS 1:54 "Business leaders need to make sure that they stay aligned with their vision, along with industry and consumer trends."  5.45 "Businesses should be looking forward and asking how we gonna position ourselves within the market."  16.17 “It's just different levels of service, speed and price that you can get anywhere. You've really got to think about those unique things that you provide.” 31.49 “Make your initial messaging as short as possible.” 37.59 “Don't invest in automation or big technology until you're sure that that process is ready for it.” 45.14 “The biggest mistake I see is that business owners look at the sales funnel as just a transaction. What you're actually selling as a business is trust.” 1.08.48 “We are hiring top talent in these countries and our pricing is in the range of providing at least a 50% ROI to customers here in the US.” 1.09.19 “If they want to try out our service, we'll give them one month free to test it out (Office Beacon).” – how to sign up is explained ABOUT THE GUEST https://www.officebeacon.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/officebeacon/ https://www.facebook.com/officebeacon https://www.instagram.com/officebeacon/ Blue Ocean Strategy - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Blue-Ocean-Strategy-Expanded-Uncontested/dp/1625274491 ABOUT THE HOST Meet Mike, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and visionary with over two and a half decades of invaluable experience in founding and scaling successful tech start-ups. Mike brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge, and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and tech professionals. As a host, Mike is dedicated to sharing actionable insights, strategies, and stories gathered from conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and experts. With a remarkable ability to distil practical wisdom from guests, Mike curates engaging discussions that resonate with both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals. 

Mike is joined today by Katrena Friel to discuss how to turn your expertise into 7 new streams of income. Katrena is a business mentor, TEDx speaker and award-winning author who has spent 25 years helping professionals turn their skills into thriving businesses that give them real freedom. Katrena reveals how you can turn what you know into 7 new income streams and do so within the next 90 days. KEY TAKEAWAYS Personal growth is the powerhouse behind any business growth. Whether you are actively developing it or not, you have a personal brand. People already have an opinion about who you are. Your brand walks in the door before you. Having a strong personal brand does not require perfection. To achieve that you would need to constantly wear a mask. That is exhausting, so you need to be authentic. Before you can be yourself, you need to know who you are.  When deciding what to change, focus on what is causing the most pain. Leverage one on one contact opportunities to make true connections that turn into investments and sales. Teach what you know through books, training, coaching, mentoring, facilitating and consulting. Ideally, you want to take people through each of those formats. Writing a book does a lot of the heavy lifting for you and it is not that difficult to write. Use your book to get on stage and connect with people who will buy your course and hire you as a coach, mentor or consultant. Offering a free discovery session is a highly effective way of attracting coaching and mentoring clients. Katrena explains the difference between being a trainer, coach, mentor, facilitator and consultant. Following Katrena´s approach you can publish your book and set yourself up as a public speaker, coach, mentor and more in just 90 days. BEST MOMENTS 2.18 "Personal development is just as important as professional development."  3.55 "Tech people are missing the people piece."  10.30 "Your brand is out there and it's there in their perception of you. That's happening regardless.” 13.55 "To hold that mask up of perfection is burnout waiting to happen."  15.21 "The more authentic you are, the more endearing you become."  34.48 “Speak to educate. Don't speak to sell or market yourself, be genuine, authentic, real, and your tribe will find you and connect.” 41.27 “The book still has gravitas, you're not the expert, until you've got a book.” 51.03 “Create a signature program for people, one that creates transformation. An end-to-end solution.” 55.30 “These online programs just aren't cutting it. People want personalised.” 1.04.38 “You need to mentor people, and other times you need to facilitate some sort of change.” 1.23.43 “I just teach you the bit that you need to know and when to do it.” ABOUT THE GUEST https://www.becomingtheexpert.com.au ABOUT THE HOST Meet Mike, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and visionary with over two and a half decades of invaluable experience in founding and scaling successful tech start-ups. Mike brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge, and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and tech professionals. As a host, Mike is dedicated to sharing actionable insights, strategies, and stories gathered from conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and experts. With a remarkable ability to distil practical wisdom from guests, Mike curates engaging discussions that resonate with both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals. 

For this episode, Mike sits down with Jade Pruett, an award-winning SEO specialist and founder of HelloSEO, with an impressive client list that includes CNN and Business Insider. She uses AI to create authentic and effective content. Doing so in a fast and effective way that was just not possible pre-AI. She shares several in-depth techniques that you can start using immediately. Learn how to turn AI from a shortcut into a secret weapon for building trust and winning customers. KEY TAKEAWAYS Truly understanding your customer´s pain points is key to mastering tech growth.  SEO is still essential for reaching customers online. AI is making it far easier to write content that appeals to the right type of potential customers, while also pleasing the ranking algorithms. Google and other algorithms prioritise content created by Experts that have Authority and are Trusted (EAT). Jade explains how to leverage this. When you give AI an exclusive body of research to work from, it produces unique and more accurate content. Re-hashing what the AI finds online isn´t enough. Jade shares a keyword research technique she uses to better understand the users pain points and the questions they need answered. You always have to edit what AI produces. If you publish AI content you will break trust with the reader and Google. Learn how to use canonical links. SEO has a better ROI than most lead generation. You have to constantly produce new content. Authentic backlinks and digital PR will boost your ranking. Use your network to create guest post backlinks. Podcast backlinks are powerful. Track and understand your metrics on all platforms. AI will potentially replace traditional search engines. You need to evolve. BEST MOMENTS 00:35 "Using AI the wrong way can hurt your credibility and waste your time… but when used right, AI generated content can become your secret weapon."  1:58 "Really understand your users, what their pain points are… interview your users."  8:32 "EAT… Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness, that's what Google is looking for."  10:01 "We increased her traffic by 400%, in a month."  19:34 "There's no one prompt you can put in and get something great … it is time consuming."  22.08 “You want to be pulling from your own information, otherwise, you're just getting information that already exists online.” 25.52 “Breaking trust with your users .. is going to hurt you in the rankings.” 40.56 “You never want to stop maintaining your SEO processes …it´s like watering a plant.” 43.41 “There´s no quick fix to backlinks.” 50.22 “Google Analytics is going to give you more than you need, and it's free.” 55.53 “By the time it's gone through human hands, you can't tell that that AI had a part in it.” ABOUT THE GUEST SEO is Jade's superpower. A skilled SEO Specialist, she has empowered hundreds of brands and businesses to gain visibility in Google and connect with their ideal clients. As the Founder of HelloSEO, Jade works 1:1 with small businesses to develop SEO strategies and achieve killer ROIs. Her client partnerships are customer-driven, insight-led, and fully transparent. Empowering businesses to grow and flourish never gets old. With Jade, you don’t just get an SEO specialist. You get a long-term brand advocate and support system.  https://helloseo.com/seo-report-card-tool ABOUT THE HOST Meet Mike, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and visionary with over two and a half decades of invaluable experience in founding and scaling successful tech start-ups. Mike brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge, and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and tech professionals. As a host, Mike is dedicated to sharing actionable insights, strategies, and stories gathered from conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and experts. With a remarkable ability to distil practical wisdom from guests, Mike curates engaging discussions that resonate with both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals. 

Mike speaks to Eran Friendinger the cofounder and CTO of Voyantis, a company that helps businesses grow using AI. Including big brands like Lennar, Miro, and Figma that have used his strategies to get 20 to 50% better results from running their ads.  Scaling in 2025 isn't about doing more. It's about working smarter with AI. If you're not using AI to help you, you're wasting time and money while your competitors are speeding ahead - The right AI deployed in the right way helps you to make you better decisions and predict what your customers want. Freeing up your time to focus on what really matters. KEY TAKEAWAYS Companies that foster data driven culture are 3x times more likely to outperform competitors.  Understanding the right KPI to measure an outcome is essential. If you are not measuring the right thing the insights will be worthless. Budget for experimenting with AI. Set your company culture up to accept and work with AI and to be data driven. AI can be used as a natural extension to your gut feeling, your intuition. You can´t effectively crunch the data to confirm that gut feeling, AI does it in seconds. Predictive analytics works for every industry. You have to spend money on working out how to use AI in your company. At some stage the data pipeline will break, and the AI will fail. You have to monitor output, spot issues, have contingencies and fix things fast. You can tell AI to write 100 SQL queries, show you the results and highlight which ones are most interesting. Automating business processes can reduce operational costs by 30%. AI is good at running marketing campaigns, but it needs some human input. Providing Google and Meta with as much consolidation information as possible will improve your campaigns. AI is great for customer support, but make sure it knows when to send the person to a human. BEST MOMENTS 00:40 "If you're not using AI to help, you're wasting time and money while your competitors are speeding ahead.." 5:57 "We were in the dark and we had a flashlight, and we were looking for those interesting nuggets of data points or KPIs, and then AI just turned on the light."  6.58  "AI could be the missing link to scaling smarter, not harder." 15:12 "Choose what's important to your business."  22.25  "The data will break. Don't expect that it is going to continue performing… Do some risk management."   32.17 “You can create automations by sending the right feedback to the AI."  42.22  "Automation can handle repetitive tasks, but businesses still need to maintain that human touch."  53.08  "Look far enough into the future .. there´s nothing to stop AI from mimicking all human behaviour ."  GUEST RESOURCES https://www.voyantis.ai https://www.youtube.com/@Voyantis-ai https://www.linkedin.com/in/eran-friendinger-5b38506 ABOUT THE HOST Meet Mike, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and visionary with over two and a half decades of invaluable experience in founding and scaling successful tech start-ups. Mike brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge, and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and tech professionals. As a host, Mike is dedicated to sharing actionable insights, strategies, and stories gathered from conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and experts. With a remarkable ability to distil practical wisdom from guests, Mike curates engaging discussions that resonate with both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals. 

Today, Mike speaks to David Hirschfeld, a seasoned entrepreneur who has worked on 30+ tech and software startups to discuss why developing a founder mindset is critical. David explains why founders need to switch from a creative to a managerial mindset. He shares why taking a clinician's approach, testing and measuring results, embracing failures as learning experiences, and being open to pivoting are all so essential. David also explains how you can use AI to automate and improve workflows while generating revenue early and keeping the cost of customer acquisition below one third of their lifetime value. KEY TAKEAWAYS An evidence-based approach is essential. Generate revenue from your customers early. It makes you less reliant on investors and you quickly learn what your customers want. If you are not out there in front of your potential customers from the start, that is a sign that you do not have the right founder´s mindset. David explains why and how to address this issue. You need to generate revenue from your customers early on. It makes you less reliant on investors, as well as more attractive to them. Look for a way to quickly produce something simple and get it in front of potential customers. At the founder stage, you need to switch from a visionary mindset to a managerial one. Value stream mapping will help you identify bottlenecks. As soon as you have a workflow that is generating decent results, create a playbook for it. BEST MOMENTS 2.52 "Clinicians don't believe in anything. They just test and measure, then make a plan based on the results of those tests." 7:58 "Founders often exhibit an obsessive leadership style and autocratic decision making, which can lead to poor decision making and strain team dynamics."  13.08 “ Founders shouldn't love their product. They should love their customers' and be committed to mitigating their customers problems."  30.37  “I looked to see where my business flow was kinked ... and focused my energy on (removing) that restriction."  34.41 “It starts to become very obvious where to focus your effort based on your cashflow.” 45.39 “When you're ready to bring someone in … give them the playbook. 55.03 “Predictability means if I spend more money in that area, I should see an equivalent return, in terms of what we're producing.” 1.03.17 “Make sure that they follow the playbook.” 1.04.49 “Founders that are really successful don't think of them as failures. They think of them as tests.” 1.07.14 “They (highly successful CEOs) are brilliant contingency planners.” 1.21.17 “If you want to accelerate through investment, having a conversation with an investor is a completely different discussion, because you've got a growing customer base.” EPISODE RESOURCES https://tekyz.com https://tekyz.podbean.com/ - Scaling Smarter Episodes. www.scalingsmarter.net - Schedule an interview https://www.linkedin.com/in/dhirschfeld/ https://x.com/tekyzinc  https://www.linkedin.com/in/dhirschfeld/  https://www.facebook.com/dmhirschfeld  David Hirschfeld is a 35-year software development veteran with a unique perspective on startups, technological innovation and business growth. A former physics student from UCLA, David's career spans leadership roles at tech giants like Computer Associates, Texas Instruments, Intel, and Motorola, before launching his first startup—which grew to 800 customers across 22 countries and was successfully sold in 2000.  Since founding Tekyz Inc. in 2007, David has emerged as a strategic advisor specialising in AI-driven workflow transformation for scaleups and in the design & development of startups. David's expertise bridges cutting-edge AI technologies, workflow optimization,  and startup ecosystem dynamics.  ABOUT THE HOST Meet Mike, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and visionary with over two and a half decades of invaluable experience in founding and scaling successful tech start-ups. Mike brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge, and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and tech professionals. As a host, Mike is dedicated to sharing actionable insights, strategies, and stories gathered from conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and experts. With a remarkable ability to distil practical wisdom from guests, Mike curates engaging discussions that resonate with both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals. 

This episode is all about finding opportunity in frustration and turning it into a platform trusted by 1 million+ users including tech giants like Airbus and Wal Mart. Mike speaks to Tanmai Gopal the CEO and co-founder of Hasura that enables users to easily build, run, govern and evolve high-quality APIs for all types of data. Reliably providing them with accurate real time data that can then be used in numerous ways to serve customers effectively and drive growth. Tanmai shares the story of Hasura’s development, how to scale effectively and how to use PromptQL to turn AI from a flaky assistant that regularly lets you down into a tool you can rely on. KEY TAKEAWAYS ●      Getting the timing right is crucial. Understand your market and product to work out what to focus on when and launch when the right tech and demand is there. ●      The Hasura team started out by offering consultancy services and made good money, but they stopped doing this to focus on product development. You can´t spread yourself too thin. ●      Identify the problem that is at the front of your customers minds, solve that and you will attract the product champions you need to gain momentum. ●      Be cautious about how you use AI. Even with access to live data it still hallucinates. Prompt QL is making AI far more reliable. ●      Letting the AI figure out how to achieve your objective and build its own program to achieve it is a far more effective way of using AI. ●      If you are tempted to build your own product, just do it. You will soon know whether entrepreneurship is for you. ●      Failing fast is still the most effective way to create a product that solves people's problems   BEST MOMENTS 2:39 "This episode is about finding opportunity in frustration and turning it into a platform trusted by tech giants." 25:20 "To have the experience of the best kind of products and have access to high quality, instant, secure data is essential." 32:34 "What´s really important is to be aligned to how people think about a particular problem – What is hot for them?" 48.17 “For AI to become a part of our day-to-day lives, it needs to become a part of our processes and our workflows.” 52.03 and 54.08  “We actually tell the AI to first plan what it wants to do with the data, then write a program to extract the right data, aggregate it and present it.” 56.23 “The business logic was the actual automation flow.” 1.13.28 “To be aware that there is a right time where things happen is very important.” 1.16.40 “You create the perfect timing by doing proper market research and just understanding the biggest problem spaces. You create a product when people are ready for that product, so the adoption is just simply there.”   ABOUT THE GUESTS https://hasura.io https://promptql.hasura.io   ABOUT THE HOST Meet Mike, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and visionary with over two and a half decades of invaluable experience in founding and scaling successful tech start-ups. Mike brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge, and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and tech professionals. As a host, Mike is dedicated to sharing actionable insights, strategies, and stories gathered from conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and experts. With a remarkable ability to distil practical wisdom from guests, Mike curates engaging discussions that resonate with both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals.  

If you are juggling too many ideas and do not know which one to focus on or are stuck because you are overthinking everything, this episode of the Managing Tech Growth podcast is for you. To discuss how to navigate your way out of that situation and avoid it in the future, Mike is joined by David Boice.  David is a serial entrepreneur who, at just 22, founded his first business. Today, it is worth hundreds of millions. His current companies employ 500+ associates who are mainly engaged in developing and providing technology for several transport industries. KEY TAKEAWAYS Achieving growth takes time, but once you have it, maintaining momentum for a few years is relatively easy. Once you demonstrate growth, attracting capital becomes much easier. Focus on solving a problem that exists. If you solve a problem only you and a few others believe is an issue, you will go nowhere. Constantly striving to improve your understanding of your customers and their problems is a growth essential. Set up a customer advisory board of 12 to 15 engaged clients, a mix of big and small.  Identifying your exit strategy before establishing your business is counterproductive. Be careful with automation. Often, to ensure that the customer gets the best service possible, you will need to insert humans into your systems  Be positive publicly. Regularly congratulate people for their achievements. Discuss problems, but primarily in the context of solving them. You will meet resistance to change regardless of whether it is good or bad.  Put in place systems that enable you to step back. If you don´t you will burn out. Not every founder should automatically become the CEO. BEST MOMENTS 5.46 “There's a whole category of private equity firms called growth investors.” 8.36 “Just make sure you're solving a problem before you start looking at anything else.” 22.18 “We kept thinking, and kept staying curious about, what could we do next? What do our clients need? What problems are we solving?” 25.08 “We weren't as prepared for how profitability was really going to drive the ultimate value of the company.” 26.59 “I am very much against pre-planned exit strategies.” 36.19 “The customer advisory board is a great way to have a constant focus on where you want to go.” 44.36 “Because clients don't always know what's possible… our job is to come up with the really big, visionary ideas.” 47.51 “Bring in people that have the skill sets that you don't have.” 1.00.36 “If you manage your downside, the only outcome that is left is positive.” 1.14.22 “Change, whether good or bad, is going to be resisted with equal intensity.” 1.22.49 “You can be aligned at the head, and you can be aligned at the heart, but the best alignment is at the wallet.” EPISODE RESOURCES https://teamvelocitymarketing.com ABOUT THE HOST Meet Mike, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and visionary with over two and a half decades of invaluable experience in founding and scaling successful tech start-ups. Mike brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge, and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and tech professionals. As a host, Mike is dedicated to sharing actionable insights, strategies, and stories gathered from conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and experts. With a remarkable ability to distil practical wisdom from guests, Mike curates engaging discussions that resonate with both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals. 

Today, Mike is joined by Ivan Gekht a Siberian Aerospace Engineer and CEO of Gehtsoft, a custom software development powerhouse. For the past 20 years, he has delivered complex solutions for numerous industries. Ivan has led transformative projects at both startups and billion-dollar enterprises. He explains why, regardless of the industry you are in, developing and delivering products at speed is essential. Ivan explains how the need to move at speed impacts the way you structure your business, go through development, deploy it, market it and more. Ivan covers using Agile, value stream mapping, decision making, creating a robust and sustainable team and much more. KEY TAKEAWAYS Prioritize speed and the ability to solve problems quickly. If you can´t move fast, you will fail. If it takes just a few days to create the product, then it takes 6 months to bring it to market, you lose.  Not using Agile well will slow you down. Using examples, Ivan explains how to fix that issue. Use value stream mapping. Take a holistic, value stream-based approach to identify and address bottlenecks. This approach improves efficiency by 30%. Don´t end up with just a few go to people. If they leave, the project can fail. Empower cross-functional teams and the product owner to make decisions. You can´t 100% solve every problem, you just need to solve it enough to get to the next level and bring your product to market. Be truly customer-centric Often, asking 8 potential customers the question is enough to validate an idea. Achieve sustainable performance by providing a safe, learning-oriented environment. You need to learn to fail and do it safely. BEST MOMENTS 00:38 "Slow teams don't just lose, they get wiped out."  10:17 "If you know exactly what needs to be done and the outcomes are predictable, you don't need Agile."  17:52 "The majority of the time is wasted not on doing the work the wrong way, but rather on doing the wrong work."  21:35 “They (the product owner) should be trusted … to make these decisions."  31:20 “Harvard Business Review reports that organizations using value stream mapping can identify bottlenecks that lead to 30% improvements in operational efficiency."  51:04 “It's not about perfection… it´s about making it good enough to hit the market … that's where you get the speed."  57.12 “For the user stories … your personal opinion doesn't matter. It's not about you, it's about the end user.” 1.05.30 “That emergent knowledge and emergent decisions come up through the teamwork process to be able to deal with the complexity.” 1.27.24 “Make sure that everything you work on brings value to the people who are paying for it and make sure to shorten time to market.” ABOUT THE GUEST https://www.linkedin.com/in/ivan-gekht https://www.gehtsoftusa.com ABOUT THE HOST Meet Mike, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and visionary with over two and a half decades of invaluable experience in founding and scaling successful tech start-ups. Mike brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge, and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and tech professionals. As a host, Mike is dedicated to sharing actionable insights, strategies, and stories gathered from conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and experts. With a remarkable ability to distil practical wisdom from guests, Mike curates engaging discussions that resonate with both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals. 

Today, Mike is joined by Ian Myers, founder and CEO of Oceans. He is an expert in building high-growth companies by hiring the right global talent, delegating effectively and creating a company culture which enables everyone, including remote workers, to thrive. Ian and Mike discuss the best way to source talent from across the globe while avoiding common issues. Including, fraud, inadvertently breaking labour laws, and people working full-time for multiple companies and not delivering. They also discuss how to improve communication and inspire people to successfully work proactively. KEY TAKEAWAYS When you hire the right person, you will see an uptick in growth. Hire talent from sources that are usually overlooked by your peers. Look for people with overlapping skill sets. Soft skills matter. If you realise after week 3 you´ve hired the wrong person, go back to the drawing board. High-growth companies need thinkers who can pivot. Global teams are the future. They are productive, resilient and work 24/7. Forbes reports that those hiring global talent grow fastest. Employing globally keeps costs low, which is especially important for startups. Using an agency that specialises in providing companies in your country with global workers helps you avoid many of the most common pitfalls. How is explained in the podcast. Successful companies deliver the culture the people they hire are attracted to. Hire using referrals from your employees. Being good at delegating is a superpower; you are 33% more effective. Tell your people they are expected to be proactive. Make it a foundation of your culture. Pick someone people trust and respect and get them to introduce and lead changes. You have to manage remote workers differently e.g. your communication has to be more precise. BEST MOMENTS 1:03 "If you still think productivity can only happen in an office; you're clinging to an outdated model."  25.24  "Make good on the promises of the culture you're promoting."  34.39 "Referrals, when hiring, are overlooked by many firms."  37.49  "Innate intelligence, adaptability and understanding of how to pick up new things… that's what's going to matter the most."  48.32 "We give our people permission to be proactive by telling them they need to be. ."  59.20 "You no longer need to hire all-arounders … AI can handle most all-around tasks."  1.06.28 “Using channels to communicate instead of DMS is a huge unlock for visibility alignment across remote teams.” THE GUEST https://www.linkedin.com/in/ian-myers-oceans https://www.oceanstalent.com HBS delegation - https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/how-to-delegate-effectively AI global economy - https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/issues/artificial-intelligence/publications/artificial-intelligence-study.html ABOUT THE HOST Meet Mike, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and visionary with over two and a half decades of invaluable experience in founding and scaling successful tech start-ups. Mike brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge, and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and tech professionals. As a host, Mike is dedicated to sharing actionable insights, strategies, and stories gathered from conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and experts. With a remarkable ability to distil practical wisdom from guests, Mike curates engaging discussions that resonate with both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals. 

Today, Mike speaks to Michael Nicastro who is the VP group, director of technology and head of accessibility at Digitas. They discuss a very overlooked aspect of scaling tech ventures - digital accessibility which is not just a compliance checkbox. It is actually a growth strategy that unlocks new markets, drives revenue and helps your product reach its full potential.  Michael is passionate about ensuring that digital products are accessible to everyone and uses quality assurance and automation to drive growth without sacrificing inclusivity. KEY TAKEAWAYS 1.3 billion people worldwide face barriers when using digital products. Some have permanent disabilities, and others have temporary disabilities. Companies that are ignoring accessibility are losing out on an estimated $1.2 trillion annually. Lawyers are literally hunting for companies that are not complying with accessibility laws. The fines are high. In 2025, the EU is introducing new accessibility legislation. All areas of the business are involved in delivering true digital accessibility. There are 40 to 50 keystrokes that a page reader may use to read a URL. Each page needs to be tested to ensure each keystroke works, which is time-consuming. Outsourcing checking accessibility is far more cost-effective than doing it yourself. AI may change that. If your cart process is not fully accessible you lose sales. DAIs force you to focus on the experience you offer for all customers. Standardisation and automation are essential. BEST MOMENTS 00.32 "If your company isn't making accessibility a priority, you missing out on revenue and losing customers.” 12:12 “Screen reading one URL can take up to eight hours. You have to do it for desktop, PC and Mac, Android and IOS."  20.03 “If there's an image there needs to be an alt text behind it that tells you what the image is.” 30.46 “When you fix issues for those who have a disability, you're fixing issues for all.” 38.11 “There are trillions of dollars in the hands of those with disability and their families across the planet.” 42.24 “Passion is vital for mastering tech growth.” 57.40 “Ask - How can I build automation one time?” ABOUT THE GUEST https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-nicastro-2862061 EPISODE RESOURCES  WCAG Guidelines - https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/#guidelines European Accessibility Act 2025 - https://www.deque.com/blog/european-accessibility-act-eaa-intro Tools Screen readers Mobile (Native) IOS Voiceover Android Talkback Desktop JAWS https://support.freedomscientific.com/Downloads/JAWS NVDA https://www.nvaccess.org/download Colour Contrast Analyzer https://webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker Digital Accessibility checker https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/axe-devtools-web-accessib/lhdoppojpmngadmnindnejefpokejbdd?pli=1 ABOUT THE HOST Meet Mike, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and visionary with over two and a half decades of invaluable experience in founding and scaling successful tech start-ups. Mike brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge, and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and tech professionals. As a host, Mike is dedicated to sharing actionable insights, strategies, and stories gathered from conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and experts. With a remarkable ability to distil practical wisdom from guests, Mike curates engaging discussions that resonate with both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals. 

In this episode, Mike speaks to Jason Barnard, CEO of Kalicube. Using cutting-edge Brand SEO, he shapes brands on Google to reflect a growth-driven vision. Jason unpacks strategies for controlling your brand story in Google and all of the AI engines so you can take full control of your online reputation, be easily found by potential customers and convert them into clients. KEY TAKEAWAYS When it comes to tech growth your brand is the most influential factor.  Your personal brand is just as important as your business brand. The way both Google and AI platforms represent you is critical. Your content needs to be packaged in a way that the machines can understand, so they can find you and showcase what you offer. Your website is the touchpoint AI and Google trusts and uses to verify who you are and what you offer. In their eyes, that website is the foundation stone. What you publish on 3rd party websites and how you reference and connect that content on your personal website makes a huge difference in getting found in the SERPS and AI searches. If you do not take control of your brand, it will be incredibly easy for a malicious actor to take control. How you structure your About page and align 3rd party sources with it is important. Focus on the sites and URLs the machines think are important. The Knowledge Graph will help you to do that. How you manage any career pivots matters. Publish in the places your potential customers are looking. Being found online is just the first step. People will research you, so everything said about you or by you, matters. Reputation issues can be fixed, but it takes time. Track what is said about your brand online and quickly deal with problems, including errors in video transcripts. Focus on your website. Get the structure right so the bots can understand it. BEST MOMENTS 2.07 "The brand is going to drive your business growth." 12.32 “The secret to (brand) control is making sure that you have one source of truth about you that you control.” 22.56 “Take control today, by cleaning up and optimising your digital footprint.” 33.01 “Our data from the Kalicube Pro database with 2 billion data points tells you the walk that you need to walk to be the most effective representative within your industry.” 43.48 “Be visible across the entire research environment for the topics we specialize in.” 48.42 “Anybody and any company can and should have a knowledge panel.” 50.31 “Generative AI, ChatGPT, Gemini, Bing and Copilot have created new demand.” 1.00.59 “If the algorithm decides that something is true, it will be true, and if it decides that it's true, you have to figure out why it thinks that's true and correct the source of information.” 1.08.26 “Video is increasingly important.” GUEST RESOURCES https://kalicube.com/solutions/free-downloadable-guides ABOUT THE HOST Meet Mike, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and visionary with over two and a half decades of invaluable experience in founding and scaling successful tech start-ups. Mike brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge, and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and tech professionals. As a host, Mike is dedicated to sharing actionable insights, strategies, and stories gathered from conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and experts. With a remarkable ability to distil practical wisdom from guests, Mike curates engaging discussions that resonate with both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals. 

  Mike speaks to Alex Levin co-founder and CEO of regal.io a leader in customer journey optimization through understanding customer intent, Alex has guided companies to go beyond reactive strategies and meet customers exactly when they are ready to engage. He shares how anticipating and responding to customer intent can unlock untapped growth.  They cover capturing and analysing customer data, including doing it in real time and incorporating contact centre interactions. As well as the current role AI agents are playing and how they are likely to develop. KEY TAKEAWAYS The rate at which one customer turns into more customers or $1 can turn into more $s is the factor that leads growth. Your customer needs and motivators change. You have to constantly analyse and update the way you approach them. Obtaining customer data is vital. Without it, you can´t keep your understanding of them up to date. Go beyond gathering customer data online. What they click on only tells you so much. Contact centre interactions are where you find the gold nuggets of customer understanding. Brands that invest in contact centres and reach out to customers at the right times with suggestions or help in a similar way they do with sales and marketing are seeing huge ROIs. Customers like you getting to know them and the fact you offer them truly personalised sales and support. Certain data patterns are strong indicators of intent. Figure out what they are for your business. Customers want contact, but only if it is relevant to them. Tailor your emails, calls etc. Analysing customer data is initially costly, so wait until your turnover is big enough or the spend per customer is high enough. Invest in building a real-time data pipeline to gain fresh insights fast. Now is the time to shift to using AI agents in your contact centres. They can absorb a lot more information than a human and hone in better on what the customer needs. BEST MOMENTS 04:31 "Whatever works today is probably not going to work tomorrow, so constant reinvention is necessary."  09:35 "That old low-touch model in customer service does not work."  16:04 "I'm not in favour of buying customer data .. but there are cases where there are reasons to do it."  21:35 "As a business understand what behaviour patterns you consider high intent with your customers." 35:10 "No matter who you are, we can ingest the data."  42:41 "The big thing now is, the shift to AI agents in the contact centre."  46:38 "Soon they're going to say, I'm so pissed off that x airline sent me to a human instead of an AI agent, because the agent would have gotten to my issue faster. It's gonna flip."  ABOUT THE GUEST https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexlevin1 https://www.regal.ai Email: [email protected] EPISODE RESOURCES https://www.snowflake.com https://www.usehatchapp.com ABOUT THE HOST Meet Mike, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and visionary with over two and a half decades of invaluable experience in founding and scaling successful tech start-ups. Mike brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge, and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and tech professionals. As a host, Mike is dedicated to sharing actionable insights, strategies, and stories gathered from conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and experts. With a remarkable ability to distil practical wisdom from guests, Mike curates engaging discussions that resonate with both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals.   

For this episode, Mike´s guest is Nick McEvily a product leader and a startup advisor who has raised over $40 million for tech ventures. They discuss why so many startups fail and how to stop that from happening. Including why so many startups inadvertently end up building a product that their customers don´t want.  Nick shares the validation methods, human-centred design, rapid product testing, de-risking and pre-sale strategies the startups he works with use to ensure that they build exactly what people need and sell it in huge numbers. KEY TAKEAWAYS Even good products fail if they are not a good market fit and are not tested early enough. There is no replacement for knowing your customer. That means truly listening and never assuming you know what they want. Invest in your research, interview your target customers and be prepared to reward them for their time. Nick explains how to find them and capture what you need to know. Pay close attention to the language potential customers use to describe your product and mirror it. If you can´t find people to interview about the product you are planning, you have to ask if there is really a market for your idea. Initially, use LinkedIn for outreach and to start to get your outbound marketing language right. You need to use pre-sales, but the people who buy then may not be fully representative of your main customer type. The validation process should be kept going indefinitely so you continue to gain insights into what your customers truly want. Understand your risk profile. If it is too high your product may not be viable. Nick explains how to check for this. Mastering tech is a lifetime task. BEST MOMENTS 00:20 "The brutal reality is that most products aren't failing because they are bad. They are failing because they weren't tested early enough" 8:38 “As a designer and a founder myself, I'll never outsource talking to my customers."   13:08 “The first litmus test for a founder is finding their product market fit."  15.35 “How will you sell it if you cannot find people to talk about what you're planning to sell?” 19:00 "Ultimately, to move this thing forward, you need compartmentalised skill sets …. departments that all have their own specialities."  33:53 "You need Google Search Console and Google Analytics plugged into your site map, your landing page."  41.51  "The market product fit analysis is never finished."  47:20 "The risk profile is too high if it takes a long time to find the talent you need."  57:35 "You got like, 10s of millions impressions on the game when it went live with your go-to-market campaign, and then you got hundreds of 1000s in the first week or so."  ABOUT THE GUEST https://www.nickmcevily.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickmcevily ABOUT THE HOST Meet Mike, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and visionary with over two and a half decades of invaluable experience in founding and scaling successful tech start-ups. Mike brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge, and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and tech professionals. As a host, Mike is dedicated to sharing actionable insights, strategies, and stories gathered from conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and experts. With a remarkable ability to distil practical wisdom from guests, Mike curates engaging discussions that resonate with both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals.