🎙️ Backstage Tech by George Helgesen

👉 Let's connect on LinkedIn — send me a request and mention the podcast.

In episode #7 of "Backstage Tech", we're breaking down how AI totally flipped product development in 2025 — and if you're still building software like it's 2023, your competitors are eating your lunch while you're wondering what happened.

Pulling from 7 years working with dozens of founders across the software world, I'm exposing 5 shifts that changed everything and what they mean for your product roadmap:

• The Speed Shift — investors don't wait two months for features anymore, they want it yesterday. Your PRDs get written by Claude, your code ships via Claude Code or Codex, and prototypes that took weeks now take hours (or you're moving in slow motion)
• The Token Economy — top performing engineers are burning 80-100M tokens monthly. If your engineers are still manually programming everything, you're stuck in the past. Tools like Claude Code, Cursor, and CodeRabbit now write, review, and test the code while engineers focus on architecture
• The Investor Mandate — over 80% of Y Combinator's 2025 startups are AI-powered. Investors aren't asking about price anymore, they're asking "How much FASTER can we build this with AI?" Speed is the new currency
• The Design Acceleration — we took an iPad app from zero to QA-ready in one week using Krisspy AI and generated 20 UI screens in three hours. Tools like Lovable, Replit, and Base44 now give you complete software products from a PRD
• The MVP Revolution — non-technical founders can build prototypes for $20 with AI builders, but production still needs real engineering talent. MVPs now take weeks with fractional experts + AI builders (not months with full dev teams)

If you own, fund, or lead a software product, this episode reveals the new baseline that separates founders who adapt from those who watch their market share vanish.

👉 Want the complete One Week MVP Discovery framework? Email [email protected] or connect with me on LinkedIn — I'll send it over.

👉 Let's connect on LinkedIn — send me a request and mention the podcast.

In episode #6 of "Backstage Tech", we're unpacking how to run a complete MVP discovery phase in one week using AI and just two people — because nine out of ten software projects blow past budget and timeline when founders skip discovery.

Pulling from 7 years working with dozens of founders at ⚙️ ProCoders, I break down the exact framework that replaces expensive discovery teams with AI and delivers a complete PRD in 5 days:

• The One-Day User Stories Protocol — record customer conversations with Loom, ask the three questions that identify THE most painful problem, then let Claude generate your problem statement and user stories in 2-4 hours (not 2 weeks)
• The AI Prototype Sprint — use Lovable, Bolt, or Replit to build a clickable MVP prototype in days, validate it with your customer live, iterate until it's sold (all with one person, no dev team yet)
• The Architecture Acceleration Method — bring in one seasoned architect, let Claude generate your tech stack, scope breakdown, and team composition in minutes, architect reviews and approves (not builds from scratch)
• The Week-One Close Strategy — speak with customers on Monday, show prototype Tuesday, refine Wednesday, present complete PRD with roadmap by Friday, then get it signed and start building (not the other way around)

If you own, fund, or lead a software product, this episode gives you the human-in-the-loop framework that turns MVP discovery from a months-long budget drain into a one-week competitive advantage.

👉 Want the complete AI-driven discovery cheat sheet? Email [email protected] or connect with me on LinkedIn and mention "Discovery" — I'll send it over.

👉 Let's connect on LinkedIn — send me a request and mention the podcast.

In episode #5 of "Backstage Tech", we're breaking down why most founders think they're building MVPs when they're actually funding expensive science projects nobody asked for.

Pulling from 7 years in the weeds at ⚙️ ProCoders, I walk through the five mistakes that kill MVPs before launch — and the exact frameworks to avoid burning six months and $100K:

• The "One Feature That Pays" rule — why you need to identify THE single capability customers will pay for today, not five features they might use someday
• The 50-30-20 Launch Strategy — ship to 50% of your market first, use that revenue to expand to 30%, then capture the final 20% (hidden Pareto principle at work)
• The 10X Prototype Rule — spend $2K on a prototype before $20K on production code, and why prototyping kills bad ideas cheap
• The Signature Test — never build without real commitment (signed contract or money in bank), because everything else is just a polite conversation
• The Built-In Distribution Rule — bake customer acquisition INTO your product architecture through integrations, partnerships, and network effects — hope and Meta ads isn't a strategy, it's gambling

If you own, fund, or lead a software product, this episode gives you the 5-question diagnostic that tells you whether you're building a real MVP or wasting capital on a fantasy product.

👉 Want the complete MVP validation checklist? Email [email protected] or connect with me on LinkedIn and I'll send it over.

👉 Let's connect on LinkedIn — send me a request and mention the podcast.

In episode #4 of "Backstage Tech", we're unpacking the truth behind OpenAI's "Agent Builder" and why calling it that was a brilliant marketing move — even though it's actually a workflow builder.

Pulling from 7 years in the trenches at ⚙️ ProCoders, I break down the critical difference between workflows and agents so you can pick the right approach for your product:

• Workflows vs Agents — why Anthropic's definition nails it: workflows use predefined code paths, agents dynamically direct their own processes
• The autonomy-predictability trade-off and why you're really chasing reliably good outcomes, not pure control or pure flexibility
• When workflows win — regulated industries, audit trails, well-defined processes that need predictability
• When agents win — variable tasks, edge cases, natural language interfaces where flexibility beats perfect predictability
• The no-code reality check — these tools solve real problems but still require technical knowledge
• A complexity framework: low complexity = agents, medium = workflow builders, high = code (LangGraph and friends)

If you own, fund, or lead a software product, this episode gives you the right question to ask: "What level of predictability do we need, and what level of autonomy can we tolerate?" — so you stop chasing buzzwords and start building what actually solves your problem.

👉 Ready to talk through your build? Book a meeting or email [email protected] and let's figure out if you need an agent or a workflow.

👉 Let's connect on LinkedIn — send me a request and mention the podcast.

In episode #3 of "Backstage Tech", we tackle the architecture choice that'll either scale beautifully or become your biggest technical debt nightmare.

Pulling from 7 years in the trenches at ⚙️ ProCoders, I break down the 5 multi-agent architectures that save you from a six-month refactor when your single agent chokes on thirty tools:

• Spot the 3 red flags that scream "time to split" — wrong tool picks, context overload, and lack of specialization
• Network for 3–4 agents that need dynamic collaboration (before it spirals into chaos)
• Supervisor for 80 % of first builds — clear workflows, sane debugging, and a migration path when you outgrow it
• Hierarchical when you hit 9+ agents across multiple domains (sales, support, analytics)
• Custom Workflow for real-world complexity where you hardwire some paths and let agents route the rest

If you own, fund, or lead a software product, this episode gives you a 60-second decision checklist so you pick the right pattern today — and avoid the nightmare of rewriting your entire agent system six months from now.

👉 Ready to talk through your build? Book a meeting or email [email protected] and let's map your setup together.

👉 Let’s connect on LinkedIn — send me a request and mention the podcast.

In episode #2 of “Backstage Tech,” we dive straight into the AI-agent gold rush and give you the exact playbook to ship one without torching your runway.

Pulling from 7 years in the trenches at ⚙️ ProCoders, I unpack the 5 moves that separate shiny-object chasers from teams who launch agents that actually earn their keep:

• Zoom in on the 20 % of features your users hit every day
• Sketch bullet-proof input/output pairs so devs know what “done” looks like
• Prototype for free in myGPT and wow customers before you spend a dime
• Lock down PII and other non-funcs before a single line of code ships
• Roll out one tool at a time to a hand-picked beta crew and iterate at lightspeed

If you own, fund, or lead a software product, this episode hands you a no-BS roadmap to validating an AI agent fast — so you stay ahead of the market while your core team keeps the lights on.

👉 Ready to talk through your build? Book a meeting and let’s de-risk it together.

👉 Let’s connect on LinkedIn — send me a request and mention the podcast.

In this pilot of “Backstage Tech,” I flip the usual outsourcing pitch and show you when it doesn’t deliver.

Drawing on 7 years at ⚙️ ProCoders, I break down three common traps: expecting rapid progress the week a remote team arrives, trusting a fixed quote built on a project brief, and chasing the impossible combo of cheap, fast, and flawless.

If you own, fund, or lead a software product, this episode helps you spot the costly mistakes many founders still repeat — so you avoid budget shocks and keep momentum on your roadmap.

👉 Ready to talk through your build? Book a meeting and let’s de-risk it together.