Ace Founder

Lorenz Olbrich, founder of LiftOFF Technology, joins the Ace Founder podcast to share his journey from academic chemistry to building a disruptive hardware startup. We discuss how his company is solving the fundamental limitations of lithium-ion batteries—specifically energy density, safety, and supply chain constraints—by developing ultra-light batteries for the booming drone market. If you want to learn how to navigate the complex world of hardware startups, secure Department of Energy funding, and use AI to accelerate physical product development, you won't want to miss this episode.📚 What We Talk About:01:00 — The reality check of leaving a prestigious academic institution and losing the brand power that naturally opens doors.02:09 — Lawrence's background in chemistry and his drive to create transformative, real-world impact over academic theory.04:54 — The origin of the name "LiftOFF" and the critical importance of ultra-light batteries in airborne applications.06:20 — The three major bottlenecks of traditional lithium-ion batteries: energy density, cell safety, and geopolitical supply chain concentration.08:22 — Why Liftoff is targeting the fast-moving drone market to deploy its first cells rather than getting trapped in the years-long procurement cycles of the EV industry.13:34 — The chemical reasons why lithium is the perfect battery element and the rising potential of abundant sodium-ion technology.16:00 — Defining their Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) to avoid competing with highly commoditized, low-cost LFP graphite batteries.24:00 — Outbound sales in hardware: How Lawrence leverages warm introductions and support from the Breakthrough Energy Foundation.28:51 — Using AI as a founder "co-pilot" to rapidly process complex legal documents, accounting, and automated data analytics.31:59 — Winning a highly competitive Department of Energy award to accelerate electrode manufacturing using closed-loop machine learning.35:15 — Final advice for aspiring founders: utilize new tools to start building and testing without needing massive amounts of initial capital.💭 Key Quotes:"If you migrate from a big institution into becoming a startup founder, you don't have that big brand carrying all that weight. You suddenly need to grind way harder to get responses.""When I speak to people in the drone industry, every single one tells me, 'I want a lighter battery. I want to have more energy.'""I am very bullish that AI can make companies both in the hardware and software space significantly more lean, significantly faster, and significantly more ambitious."🔗 Resources & Links Mentioned:Connect with Lorenz Olbrich: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lfo/Check out LiftOFF Technologies: Website: https://www.liftoff-tech.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/liftoff-technology/Subscribe to the Ace Founder podcast: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7pr4vbbBEXSNIOJyCQeAgO?si=ffd3acd0153143c3&nd=1&dlsi=e69406b315e14767Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/ace-founder/id1896106957YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvDwiziwK6LK_A7EIK2hpng

Niall Ratcliffe, co-founder of Noticed, joins the Ace Founder podcast to deliver an absolute masterclass on turning LinkedIn into your primary B2B growth engine.

We dig into how he accidentally stumbled into entrepreneurship, scaled his agency to seven figures, and the exact three-step playbook any founder can use to start booking meetings immediately.

If you still view LinkedIn as just an online resume or a place to post selfies, you need to listen to this episode before your competitors steal all your leads.

📚 What We Talk About:

• 01:33 — The unglamorous reality of the founder lifestyle and why it’s more about strict budgets and rigid schedules than ultimate freedom.

• 02:51 — How Niall accidentally started a business at 19 and hit a £100k run rate in just 11 days with a single LinkedIn post.

• 04:53 — Navigating the early chaos of entrepreneurship, signing silly contracts, and the immense value of radical honesty with advisors.

• 07:28 — The origin story of the "Noticed" rebrand and how a reality check from Dom McGregor forced them to drop "Ratcliffe Brothers".

• 11:18 — The LinkedIn "fishing" analogy: Why founders need to stop fishing in massive, crowded lakes like Instagram and cast their lines where the decision-makers actually swim.

• 13:18 — The closing window of opportunity on LinkedIn and why early adoption is critical before the platform becomes oversaturated.

• 14:43 — The three-level LinkedIn pyramid: Positioning your profile, automating connection requests to your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP), and creating "fishing" content.

• 16:58 — Executing outbound on LinkedIn properly using binary calls to action to drive real sales conversations.

• 21:03 — The crucial difference between fishing content (lead gen) and brand awareness content (lived experiences and unique perspectives).

• 26:47 — Troubleshooting a dead LinkedIn strategy by rotating through the pyramid and fixing fundamental flaws in your positioning or outreach.

• 31:45 — Why generic commenting strategies and taking advice from viral selfie-posters won't win you million-pound B2B contracts.

• 34:18 — Levels four and five: Using AI and intent signals to steal your competitors' leads, and the hard truth about burning cash on LinkedIn ads.

• 38:21 — How AI has shifted marketing from six-week creative campaigns to high-volume, rapid-testing workflows.

💭 Key Quotes:

• "The founder lifestyle is actually very, very structured, very regimented, and quite boring on a day-to-day basis.”

• “It is a marathon, not a sprint."

• "If you look over at LinkedIn, it's a slightly smaller lake, but there's a massive hoard of massive fish in there, and no one likes to fish in the water."

• "The way you win with brand awareness content in 2026 is to focus on lived experiences and unique perspectives. You want to be looking for things that only you can say."

• "If you want good advice, don't talk to the person with hundreds of thousands of followers, 'cause what worked for them doesn't necessarily apply to you."

🔗 Resources & Links Mentioned:

• Connect with Niall Ratcliffe: LinkedIn

• Check out Noticed: Website and LinkedIn

• Subscribe to the Ace Founder podcast: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube

Adit Trivedi is our guest in this episode of the Ace Founder podcast.

He’s the co-founder of HyperGTM, and in this episode we discuss how his team uses AI to solve the biggest bottleneck in enterprise sales: getting past the noise of automated outreach to book meetings with key decision-makers.

We cover his wild entrepreneurial journey—from selling a B2C language app with 6 million users to discovering the power of highly targeted, hyper-personalized Account-Based Marketing (ABM).

If you are a B2B founder struggling to cut through the spam and actually connect with strategic accounts, you will want to hear Adit's masterclass on doing the unscalable work to win massive deals.

📚 What We Talk About:

• 01:18 — The unglamorous reality of being a founder.

• 04:36 — Why founders need diverse co-founders.

• 06:46 — Adit's early journey from a struggling student to building an AI English-learning app that scaled to six million users and got acquired.

• 13:58 — The hilariously confusing original name of his company and how joining forces with former classmates birthed HyperGTM.

• 18:09 — How remote work isolation and the explosion of AI tools have made traditional online sales outreach completely ineffective.

• 21:55 — How he stumbled into Account-Based Marketing (ABM).

• 24:47 — How HyperGTM's AI agents research 21-person enterprise buying committees to deliver jaw-dropping, one-of-one personalized gifts.

• 31:16 — Why the best AI tools integrate seamlessly into existing workflows instead of forcing teams to learn new software.

• 37:38 — Why the rise of AI is a double-edged sword.

• 44:41 — Adit's ultimate advice for B2B founders: niche down aggressively, exhaust your market, and meet your customers where they are.

• 49:36 — The sheer hustle required to win in enterprise sales and why Adit will jump on a flight to New Zealand tomorrow to close a six-figure deal.

💭 Key Quotes:

• "I don't think people realize how difficult it is and how many “Nos” you have to get through to get to your first YES."

• "Only when someone's willing to pay you for this problem being solved in this way that you've presented to them—then I think you become a founder.

• "You have to build personal relationships to earn the right to develop professional relationships.

• "You can have a really big vision, but unless you're grounded enough, you're never gonna take the steps to crack a niche to move on to the next niche."

🔗 Connect With Our Guest:

• Connect with Adit Trivedi: LinkedIn

• Check out HyperGTM: hypergtm.com‍, LinkedIn

• Subscribe to the Ace Founder podcast: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube

Our guest in this episode of Ace Founder is Kevin Baker, founder of BIMASS.Kevin's background is pretty interesting. A self-taught hacker who got his first warning from law enforcement as a teenager, he went on to build his own custom computer brand in Florida in the 90s, programme chips for Compaq, and eventually landed in state government as a Chief Information Security Officer — before walking away from the politics and betting on himself and founding BIMASS.12 years later, they’re still standing, still growing, and now building an AI-powered tool that could change how organisations manage cybersecurity risk altogether.In this conversation, Kevin shares the story behind BIMASS — and what it really takes to build a cybersecurity firm that survives recessions, a global pandemic, and a constantly shifting industry.📚 What We Talk About:00:33 From Commodore 64 to hacking bulletin boards — how it all started05:21 The moment government politics pushed him out and BIMASS was born08:43 How the name BIMASS came together at 2 am and why it stuck10:13 How COVID turned into their best trading period — pallets of laptops and all13:03 What BIMASS does — and the AI-powered tool they're building to replace the CISO workload20:37 Why being brutally honest in a client meeting landed them one of their biggest contracts27:19 Why every lucrative contract they've ever won came through referrals, not marketing31:59 Where Kevin sees BIMASS in five years — and why acquisition is the goal💭 Key Quotes:"AI doesn't have all the answers..""AI is only as good as the information you feed it. We human beings need to be careful not to get lazy and stop thinking.""Believe in your vision and have faith. Stick to it and take the risk.""When it's good, it's really good. When it's bad, it's really bad. You just have to adapt.""I could be dog-tired — I'm gonna get up and do it. It's in me."🔗 Connect With Our Guest:Website: BIMASS - https://www.bimass.com/LinkedIn: Kevin Baker - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbaker/BIMASS LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/bimass/

Our guest in this episode of Ace Founder is Otuoze Baiye, founder of Black Knight Risk Management.

Otuoze is one of those founders you come across on LinkedIn and just have to get on the show.

A West Point graduate, former US Army Missile Defense Officer, and bank regulator who never planned to start a company — until the federal government gave him no choice.

In this conversation, Otuoze shares the story behind Black Knight Risk Management — a consultancy helping regulated firms and government agencies implement emerging technology, including AI, without falling foul of the regulators.

📚 What We Talk About:

• 00:06 From missile defense officer to bank regulator to founder — a career nobody planned

• 08:11 Why being in the bottom third at West Point led to one of the most unique career paths in cybersecurity

• 16:00 The story behind the name — and why Black Knight means more than just a chess piece

• 18:47 What Black Knight does — and why every AI implementation starts with the use case, not the tool

• 25:30 Why bringing AI into a regulated firm is a cross-functional problem, not an IT problem

• 32:51 What makes Black Knight different — and why nobody else has been both a missile officer and a bank regulator

• 35:44 How he uses LinkedIn — and why getting over the cringe factor changed everything

• 42:14 Final tip — say yes to more things and see where it takes you

💭 Key Quotes:

• "I have never worked this hard in my entire life — and the Army is a 24/7 job."

• "I don't come in and tell people to fire half their developers. I'm there to make the team they have better using technology."

• "You have to just get over years of looking cringe on LinkedIn. That's the only way it's gonna happen."

• "Whether people are talking about me good or bad — this is the only way I'm gonna make money."

• "Make connections. Say yes to as many things as possible. Step out of your comfort zone and see where it carries you."

🔗 Connect With Our Guest:

• Website: blackknightrm.com

• LinkedIn: Otuoze Baiye

• Black Knight LinkedIn

• Black Knight YouTube channel

Our guest in this episode of Ace Founder is Idris Ayoade, founder of Driscop Limited.

Idris is one of those founders you come across on LinkedIn and just have to get on the show.

A threat intelligence analyst turned entrepreneur who spotted a problem hiding in plain sight — 20% of the UK's 5.9 million small businesses get cyber-breached every year, and most of them never saw it coming.

In this conversation, Idris shares the story behind Driscop — an AI-powered cybersecurity platform helping small businesses detect threats before they click, not after they've lost everything.

📚 What We Talk About:

• 00:06 How a career in infrastructure engineering led him to cybersecurity and eventually Driscop

• 06:37 The story behind the name Driscop.

• 09:17 What Driscop does — from AI threat detection to training nudges that teach you to think before you click

• 14:50 How they landed their first pilot customers.

• 24:22 The £50,000 invoice fraud story that shows exactly why small businesses need this

• 30:23 The biggest win — getting selected from 500 applicants into the Barclays Black Founder Accelerator

• 34:37 The biggest lesson — why trying to do everything at once is the fastest road to burnout

💭 Key Quotes:

• "Getting someone interested is not the same as getting them to become a customer."

• "We are encouraging people to think before they click, not click before they think."

• "The biggest win isn't one event. It's seeing Driscop move from an idea in my head into something people are willing to test, challenge, and help develop."

• "It's better to not be busy and do the right stuff than to be busy doing a lot of stuff that leads nowhere."

• "Filtering the noise in the midst of the chaos — that's been the biggest lesson building Driscop."

🔗 Connect With Our Guest:

• Website: driscop.co.uk

• Driscop Training platform

• Company LinkedIn

• Idris LinkedIn profile

Our guest in this episode of Ace Founder is Jirka Bachel, founder of Navigara.

Jirka is one of those founders you come across on LinkedIn and just have to get on the show.

A 20-year software engineering veteran who built a browser that competed with Chrome, survived a plane crash over Venice, and then went on to build a data-driven platform that Fortune 500 companies and unicorns came knocking for after just one LinkedIn post.

In this conversation, Jirka shares the story behind Navigara — a platform that gives engineering managers the data they need to run their teams like a business, not on gut feeling.

📚 What We Talk About:

• 01:10 The plane crash over Venice that almost ended everything

• 14:29 From selling burned CDs at 12 to 20 years in software engineering

• 15:47 How he built a Google competitor and a Chrome competitor in the Czech Republic

• 22:04 What Navigara does — and why customers call it Engineering Moneyball

• 27:33 How one LinkedIn post landed him two Fortune 500 companies

• 29:00 Why he believes one exceptional person beats three average hires every time

• 44:59 The biggest challenge — getting engineers to trust data over instinct

• 54:17 The biggest win — watching engineers compete to be the best developer of the week

💭 Key Quotes:

• "A man has two lives. The first one ends when you realize you have only one life."

• "Engineering teams are managed by guts and experience. There is no data."

• "Our customers call this Engineering Moneyball — and I love that."

• "One exceptional person with AI can do amazing stuff. More people just makes it harder to align."

• "Roadmap delivery is our mantra. Everything else follows from that."

🔗 Connect With Our Guest:

• Website: navigara.com

• LinkedIn: Jirka Bachel

Our guest this week on Ace Founder is Vincent Scott, founder of Defense Cybersecurity Group.Vincent's path into entrepreneurship is unlike anyone we've had on the show. A US Naval Academy graduate, Gulf War veteran, and former cryptologist who spent his career breaking into other people's communications for the US Navy — he now helps defence contractors meet their cybersecurity obligations before the government comes knocking.In this conversation, Vincent shares the story of building Defense Cybersecurity Group, why detection is the most undervalued skill in cybersecurity, and why his biggest win had nothing to do with revenue.📚 What We Talk About:02:23 From horse ranch to Naval Academy to Gulf War cryptologist04:54 Inside the world of cryptology10:00 The Naval roots behind the company name12:00 Helping defense contractors meet their DOD cybersecurity obligations21:00 Why this extends to UK and Australian companies27:00 Building an AI defensive agent to fight back against AI attacks29:00 Why detection is the most undervalued skill in cybersecurity37:13 How he used LinkedIn to land his their first clients44:59 The biggest challenge — scaling from an army of one54:17 The biggest win — providing healthcare for his employees💭 Key Quotes:"If you think hiring a professional is expensive, try hiring an amateur.""Detection is the most undervalued skill in cybersecurity. Prevention gets 80% of the effort — but prevention is going to fail.""There are no bad regiments, only bad colonels.""The best thing you can do is make the right decision. The next best is make the wrong decision. The worst thing you can do is not decide at all.""In two years you can be a cybersecurity expert — because what came before that is probably old think."🔗 Connect With Our Guest:Website: https://www.cybersecgru.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vincent-scott-cybersecurity

Our guest this week on Ace Founder is Jovan Miljevic, founder of N8N Labs.Jovan is actually a repeat guest of the podcast. Having sold his previous ad agency, Bounty Hunter, he's back to share the story of his new venture — N8N Labs, an AI automation agency helping companies run leaner, move faster, and stop drowning in manual processes.In this conversation, Jovan gets into what it actually looks like to build an AI agency from the ground up — the early clients, the failed projects, the noise in the market, and why his biggest tip as an AI founder is to be more human.📚 What We Talk About:01:00 Jovan's story — from boutique travel portal to ad agency to AI automation03:30 Why he sold Bounty Hunter at its peak and what the process actually looked like09:42 Why AI native agencies are valued differently — and why the model is so lucrative right now14:16 What N8N Labs does and how it's grown beyond just the N8N platform16:44 How a lean team of 8 is delivering what most agencies need 30 people to do24:00 How their first clients found them through AI search — not referrals27:00 The biggest win that had nothing to do with revenue30:27 The biggest challenge — cutting through the noise and helping clients understand what they actually need36:00 Is software dead? Jovan's take on AI and the future of SaaS43:25 How they use AI agents to run their own content and website operations50:40 Final tip: develop your human capabilities first💭 Key Quotes:"When you are an AI native agency, you're not billing for hours. You're building systems that compound for a client.""The biggest challenge is battling the slop — people asking for tools that aren't right for their problem.""AI is not going to replace us. It will hopefully make us better.""An AI guy telling you to be more human — take that seriously.""Everything in life requires consistency. It's more about you than the network."🔗 Connect With Our Guest:Website: https://n8nlab.ioLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jovan-miljevic/

Most founders think cybersecurity is a technology problem. Derek Hardmon says it's a business problem — and that's exactly why most small businesses get it wrong.

In this episode of Ace Founder, Derek — founder of Secure Technology Consultants and a 20-year veteran of IT and information security across banking, healthcare, and regulated industries — breaks down how small and medium businesses can build a cybersecurity program that actually works, without breaking the bank.

If you've ever thought "we're too small to be a target" — this episode is specifically for you.

📚 What We Talk About:

• 01:00 Derek's background and what Secure Technology Consultants does

• 02:00 The story behind the name — and why simple and direct always wins

• 03:09 The five things every founder needs in place before anything else

• 06:04 Why cybersecurity has to be driven from the top down — not bottom up

• 07:46 The two types of small businesses Derek encounters — and why both are at risk

• 09:26 Why hackers don't target you specifically — they just check every door until one opens

• 11:21 Why your small business might not be the target — but your bigger client is

• 13:25 How Derek interviews and onboards a new client from day one

• 15:36 How to build a cybersecurity program from scratch — step by step

• 17:24 Why having policies isn't enough — you have to prove you're actually using them

• 21:21 Why starting a cybersecurity culture early is a huge advantage for new businesses

• 23:47 Why cybersecurity isn't a technology problem — it's a business function

💭 Key Quotes:

• "You can't afford cybersecurity? You really can't afford a breach."

• "It's not good enough to just have these things in place. You have to show you're actually performing these tasks."

• "Think of cybersecurity not as technology — think of it as a business function, a living, breathing entity within your organisation."

• "Hackers are checking doors. All they need isn't locked."

• "If it's coming from the CEO, it's going to be better received than coming from somebody like me."

🔗 Connect With Our Guest:

• Website: securetcllc.com

• LinkedIn: Derek Hardmon