Founder Mode

EPISODE 21

Hosts Kevin Henrikson and Jason Shafton go beyond the headlines to unpack the real bottlenecks that stall healthcare—and how to fix them—with consultant and operator Rebecca Shufeldt, founder of Ignite Healthcare Solutions. Drawing on her path from urgent care ops to EHR/revenue cycle leadership, Rebecca explains why go‑live is “day zero,” how her evolving “Silver Bullet” project plan keeps Athenahealth implementations aligned to payer/CMS changes, and where AI—voice intake, scheduling, eligibility, authorizations and referrals—removes administrative drag, reduces denials, and lifts patient and clinician satisfaction. The group digs into tailoring EHRs beyond “turnkey,” building clinician buy‑in, upskilling staff instead of replacing them (“Betty”), and how a flexible, female‑led team model helps practices scale without burnout while improving revenue.

CHAPTERS

00:00 – Setting the stakes: healthcare’s hidden blockers + Jason’s Heal story

02:00 – AI as a wedge: voice, eligibility & EHR‑integrated routing

05:03 – Meet Rebecca Shufeldt & Athenahealth optimization

10:19 – The “Silver Bullet” plan: go‑live is day zero

12:55 – Revenue cycle pitfalls, authorizations & upskilling the team

CONNECT WITH REBECCA

Website • LinkedIn

SPECIAL OFFER

Ignite Healthcare Solutions is offering a complimentary 30-minute athenahealth optimization review with our CEO for Founder Mode listeners. We’ll assess your current use of the platform, highlight quick-win opportunities to improve efficiency and revenue, and share proven strategies tailored to your organization’s goals—whether you’re a start-up, an established practice, or an MSO.

RESOURCE

Voice AI Technology for athenaOne Practices:

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CONNECT WITH KEVIN

LinkedIn • X/Twitter

CONNECT WITH JASON

LinkedIn • X/Twitter

EPISODE 20

In this episode of Founder Mode, Kevin and Jason sit down with Ahad Khan, CEO of Kajabi, to unpack what it really means to be a “creator CEO” in 2025. From shifting creators’ mindsets beyond virality toward sustainable, owner-operated businesses, to finding content market fit before building products, Ahad shares actionable strategies for monetization, pricing, and using AI without losing the human touch. He also opens up about leading a global team as a post-founder CEO, honoring Kajabi’s customer-obsessed roots while implementing his own leadership cadence, and why the future belongs to entrepreneurial creators who build brands their audiences truly value.

CHAPTERS

00:00 – Why “Creator CEO” is the Future of the Creator Economy

06:51 – Building for Everyday People and Customer Obsession at Kajabi

12:55 – Content Market Fit and Monetizing Beyond Virality

17:36 – Using AI to Scale Without Losing the Human Touch

25:07 – Leadership Cadence and Work-Life Integration as a Post-Founder CEO

LINKS

Connect with Ahad Khan

Kajabi • LinkedIn • X/Twitter

SPECIAL OFFER

Email ahad [at] kajabi.com for a special offer when you sign up for Kajabi.

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LinkedIn • X/Twitter

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LinkedIn • X/Twitter

EPISODE 19

Visibility isn't a vibe—it's a system. In this episode, Jason and Kevin sit down with Chris Winfield, creator, connector, and coach, to break down how founders can build an unfair advantage in an AI-saturated world. Chris shares his 80/20 rule for AI usage, why content strategy is non-negotiable in 2025, and how personal connection still beats automation. Learn how to become the go-to expert in your niche, simplify your message like Steve Jobs, and avoid falling into the “Slopbot” trap of over-AI'd content.

CHAPTERS

00:00 – The 80/20 Rule for Using AI

06:26 – Visibility Through Content and Connection

12:11 – Build Real Relationships in a Noisy Digital World

15:28 – Marketing Trends That Actually Matter in 2025

19:37 – The Real Unfair Advantage for Founders

LINKS

Connect with Chris

Instagram • LinkedIn

Special Offer

DM Chris on Instagram @chriswinfield and mention Kevin & Jason to get a special offer.

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Connect with Kevin

LinkedIn • X/Twitter

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LinkedIn • X/Twitter

EPISODE 18

In this candid, fast-paced solo episode, Jason and Kevin unpack the systems behind their ideal weeks, why founders should prioritize health like a product launch, and how to build a ride-or-die team that spans multiple startups. From hiding jets from repo men to wearing smart glasses on the beach, they share war stories, personal rituals, and the mindset that separates cautious operators from calculated risk-takers.

CHAPTERS

00:00 – The Casino Story That Saved FedEx

01:04 – Building Your Perfect Week

05:14 – Big Company Constraints Are (Mostly) Self-Imposed

10:00 – Health Is Your Only Asset

16:08 – Boomerangs vs. Boomer Rides

LINKS

Connect with Kevin

LinkedIn • X/Twitter

Connect with Jason

LinkedIn • X/Twitter

RESOURCES

Meta Ray Ban Wayfarer

Tune Up Fitness

Myo

EPISODE 17

Water‑tech pioneer Ravi Kurani explains how a floating pool‑chemistry robot became the ultimate hardware moat, why proprietary water data unlocks service marketplaces, and where trillion‑dollar opportunities lie at the water‑energy nexus. He recounts two years on Shenzhen factory floors perfecting Sutro, selling the startup before mass production, and now plotting to buy it back to tackle agriculture, cooling towers, and AI data centers. Hosts Jason Shafton and Kevin Henrikson unpack story‑driven design, founder persistence, and the future of “smart” water.

CHAPTERS

00:00 – From Pools to Robotics: Ravi’s origin story

03:44 – Hardware Moats & Proprietary Water Data

07:11 – Sutro as the “Nest Cam” for Your Pool

09:01 – Water as Tech’s Next Trillion‑Dollar Frontier

16:36 – Founder Mode in China: Two Years on the Factory Floor

LINKS

Connect with Ravi

Sutro • Liquid Assets Podcast • LinkedIn • X/Twitter

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LinkedIn • X/Twitter

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LinkedIn • X/Twitter

EPISODE 16

From living two years out of a suitcase to shipping AI products at Microsoft-scale, Angus Logan joins Kevin and Jason to unpack how “failing forward” accelerates learning. He explains why product teams should break things early each morning, how to shield a fast-moving startup culture inside a corporate giant, and the importance of weekly shipping cadences. Angus also shares his “LifeOps” playbook—100 travel-buddy rules, zero checked bags, and decision templates that free up brainpower—plus how culture-soaking trips and five-year-old Android phones keep him designing for real-world users everywhere.

CHAPTERS

00:00 – Why failure is fuel

03:34 – Angus on rapid AI experimentation

06:50 – Integrating startups into Microsoft

10:58 – LifeOps: travel hacking & decision systems

18:47 – Global perspective and takeaways

LINKS

Connect with Angus

LinkedIn • Newsletter

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LinkedIn • X/Twitter

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LinkedIn • X/Twitter

EPISODE 15

AI builder Shuja Keen joins Kevin and Jason to trace his 20-year journey from building offshore labor forces to AI-native operations. He explains how falling bandwidth costs kicked off globalization, why today’s custom LLM agents are ready while people and processes lag, and how an abundance mindset lets founders redesign workflows instead of bolting AI onto old playbooks. Using metaphors like orthotics that adapt to your feet, Shuja shows how bespoke software, not one-size-fits-all packages, will unlock personalization in healthcare, education, and beyond—and urges founders to stop selling car parts and deliver the full “Uber” experience.

CHAPTERS

00:00 – Outcomes Over Tools: The Uber Analogy

04:31 – Onshore → Offshore → AI: Shuja’s 20-Year Lens

11:32 – Custom Software & the Abundance Mindset

17:06 – AI’s Impact on Healthcare, Education & Inclusion

21:02 – Founder Playbook for 2025

LINKS

Connect with Shuja Keen

786 Ventures • LinkedIn • X/Twitter

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LinkedIn • X/Twitter

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LinkedIn • X/Twitter

EPISODE 14

In this episode of Founder Mode, we hit the gym with legendary trainer Coach Lou Perrotta—who's spent decades working with elite entrepreneurs, celebrities, and top performers. Coach Lou shares how fitness, mindset, and consistency create compounding results—both in the gym and in business. From towel pull-ups in hotel rooms to 15-minute daily routines, Kevin, Jason, and Coach Lou talk about building mental resilience, breaking plateaus, and why the best founders train their bodies as relentlessly as they train their minds.

CHAPTERS

00:00 – Why Every Founder Needs a Coach

01:05 – Coach Lou’s Origin Story

03:38 – Health is the First Investment

05:21 – Use What You Have

08:20 – Focus, Transformation, and Final Lessons

LINKS

Connect with Coach Lou

Instagram

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LinkedIn • X/Twitter

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EPISODE 13

Kevin Henrikson and Jason Shafton sit down with serial entrepreneur Dennis Mortensen (IndexTools, Visual Revenue, x.ai, and now LaunchBrightly) to unpack what it was really like to build an AI company years before large-language models existed. Dennis recounts owning the x.ai domain before Elon Musk, hand-labeling 32 million emails to train an early scheduling agent, and the costly product-design decisions that followed. He shares hard-won lessons on focusing on pain over technology, reverse-engineering post-acquisition goals, and why parenting teenagers is the ultimate sales boot camp. Dennis then introduces LaunchBrightly, his new platform that automates every product screenshot in your help center—and he caps the chat with an exclusive free-setup offer for Founder Mode listeners.

CHAPTERS

00:00 – x.ai Before Elon

01:34 – Hand-Labeling 32 Million Emails

05:45 – Product Design > Prediction Precision

14:45 – Birth of LaunchBrightly

29:56 – Special Offer & Next Steps

OFFER
Mention “Founder Mode” when you connect with LaunchBrightly to get your first batch of up to 1,000 automated screenshot-update recipes created for free.

Connect with Dennis
LaunchBrightly • LinkedIn • X/Twitter

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EPISODE 12

From building gravity-defying camera rigs for Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity to sending drones into live nuclear reactors and, most recently, designing job-site robots that can survive the dust and chaos of construction, Asa Hammond’s career shows how precision engineering and artistic vision can coexist. In this conversation, Asa explains how the exacting pixel-perfect discipline of Hollywood VFX became the blueprint for ultra-reliable industrial robotics, why safety and repeatability always come before flashy features, and how new UX layers—voice, LLMs, demonstration learning—are finally making complex machines feel like familiar tools. Along the way, we hear tales of full-scale “stunt-double” reactors, the reality of folding-laundry robots, and what it takes to assemble a world-class, T-shaped engineering team that thrives at the edge of possibility.

CHAPTERS

00:29 – From Film Sets to Founders: Show Intro

02:12 – Asa’s Hollywood-to-Hard-Hats Origin Story

05:57 – Engineering Robots for Gravity

09:05 – Reinventing Construction with Industrial Arms

15:56 – Flying Drones Inside Nuclear Reactors

LINKS

Connect with Asa Hammond

Website • LinkedIn • X/Twitter

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LinkedIn • X/Twitter

Connect with Jason

LinkedIn • X/Twitter