Welcome to Founder Real Talk, a podcast for founders, by founders. 

We explore the real journey of building and growing a company. Each episode, we go beyond the highlight reel to unpack the strategies, decisions, and hard lessons that shaped successful businesses, revealing the good, the bad, and the ugly behind the growth.

This week, Josh sits down with Hans Gunter, co-founder and CEO of Deliberately AI — the AI-native platform modernizing workflows for family law and legal professionals. Hans has spent nearly 30 years in Silicon Valley leading product across aerospace, defense, financial services, and healthcare. But it was his own divorce a decade ago that pointed him toward legal services, an industry he saw waiting to be transformed. Hans opens up about pricing experiments across geographies, the fear that fell off him when he stopped worrying what people thought, and why he believes self-care is a business strategy — not a distraction from one.

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This episode was brought to you by Wisdom Partners. If you’re looking for more real conversations, practical resources, and honest founder stories, follow us for upcoming episodes of Founder Real Talk. We invite you to subscribe to our Substack newsletters to receive weekly articles, insights, and resources designed to support founders through every stage of the journey!

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Chapters

(00:00) - Intro

(01:54) - How divorce led Hans into legal tech

(05:43) - Expanding beyond family law

(07:19) - A big win: from four-digit deals to six-digit deals

(09:29) - The wisdom of guessing less and testing more

(11:34) - Pricing experiments across geographies

(14:35) - The biggest challenge: software development is being rewritten in real time

(19:29) - Evolving as a leader: losing the fear

(20:47) - How self-understanding rewires your leadership

(24:19) - Self-care as a business strategy

(27:07) - Brownout, marathon pace, and 100% > 90%

(29:32) - Closing thoughts

Links & Resources

• Hans’ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hansguntren
• Deliberately AI: https://deliberately.ai/
• Scaling People by Claire Hughes Johnson: https://www.amazon.com/Scaling-People-Tactics-Management-Building/dp/1953953212

Keywords 

founders, entrepreneurship, legal tech, family law technology, Deliberately AI, Hans Gunter, AI-native software, product leadership, self-care, founder burnout, brownout, meditation, yoga, leadership development, self-understanding, pricing strategy, LLMs, legal AI, Silicon Valley, Scaling People, Claire Hughes Johnson

Welcome to Founder Real Talk, a podcast for founders, by founders. 

We explore the real journey of building and growing a company. Each episode, we go beyond the highlight reel to unpack the strategies, decisions, and hard lessons that shaped successful businesses, revealing the good, the bad, and the ugly behind the growth.

This week, Josh sits down with JR Butler, CEO of Shift Group — the company helping athletes and veterans translate 20 years of uniform-earned intangibles into business careers. JR played hockey for 23 years, retired at 22, and lost himself in what he calls his "handcuffs and hospitals era" before getting sober (14 years this August). He opens up about the identity collapse most athletes and veterans go through when they leave uniform, the "riches are in the niches" lesson that reshaped his company this year, and how a recent epilepsy diagnosis forced him into the structure his business now depends on.

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This episode was brought to you by Wisdom Partners. If you’re looking for more real conversations, practical resources, and honest founder stories, follow us for upcoming episodes of Founder Real Talk. We invite you to subscribe to our Substack newsletters to receive weekly articles, insights, and resources designed to support founders through every stage of the journey!

Contact us: wisdompartners.llc/contact

Subscribe to our Substack: blog.wisdompartners.llc

Chapters 

(00:00) - Intro

(02:22) - The identity collapse when the uniform comes off

(07:58) - Why traditional hiring can't find real talent

(11:33) - Character vs competency: what actually predicts success

(15:23) - A big win: pivoting to drive more career outcomes than revenue

(19:34) - Mission and margin: why nonprofit outcomes need for-profit engines

(20:33) - The wisdom of this year: riches are in the niches

(24:47) - Getting the team out of scale thinking and back to sustainability

(26:28) - Evolving as a leader: from CRO to CEO to husband and dad

(30:39) - Sales background as a superpower — and its shadow habit

(33:41) - The epilepsy diagnosis that forced a new operating rhythm

(35:14) - How JR is finally learning to say no

(36:20) - Closing thoughts

Links & Resources

• JR’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jrbutler
• Shift Group: https://shiftgroup.io/
• Radical Delegation Book: https://mindmaven.com/radical-delegation/

Keywords

founders, entrepreneurship, athletes in business, veterans in business, Shift Group, JR Butler, hiring, talent acquisition, sales leadership, character development, sobriety, addiction recovery, identity, life after sports, military transition, mission-driven business, riches in the niches, epilepsy, founder health, executive assistants, radical delegation, CRO, sales-led founder

Welcome to Founder Real Talk, a podcast for founders, by founders. 

We explore the real journey of building and growing a company. Each episode, we go beyond the highlight reel to unpack the strategies, decisions, and hard lessons that shaped successful businesses, revealing the good, the bad, and the ugly behind the growth.

This week, Josh sits down with Cosimo Spera, founder and CEO of Minerva CQ — the collaborative intelligence platform building real-time AI agent assist and multi-agent safety infrastructure for contact centers. Cosimo opens up about why resilience is the single most important founder trait, the mobile payments company he built in 2005 (before the iPhone) that went nowhere, and the bank-robbery analogy he uses to explain why "safe" AI agents become dangerous when they work together

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This episode was brought to you by Wisdom Partners. If you’re looking for more real conversations, practical resources, and honest founder stories, follow us for upcoming episodes of Founder Real Talk. We invite you to subscribe to our Substack newsletters to receive weekly articles, insights, and resources designed to support founders through every stage of the journey!

Contact us: wisdompartners.llc/contact

Subscribe to our Substack: blog.wisdompartners.llc

Chapters

(00:00) - Intro

(02:12) - Why resilience is the #1 founder trait

(03:56) - Bike rides, family time, and the discipline of showing up

(10:19) - Hire people way better than you (100% of zero is still zero)

(12:16) - Building Minerva CQ: from real-time agent assist to agentic AI

(16:14) - The bank analogy: why "safe" AI agents fail together

(19:47) - Why the EU AI Act changes everything by August 2026

(20:35) - Celebrating small wins over big wins

(24:34) - Failure is part of the game: the 2005 mobile payments story

(27:27) - How to separate your identity from your company

(28:34) - The buck stops with you: leading a team the right way

(30:54) - Closing thoughts

Links & Resources

• Cosimo’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cosimospera
• Minerva CQ: https://www.minervacq.com/

Keywords 

founders, entrepreneurship, resilience, AI safety, agentic AI, multi-agent systems, Minerva CQ, Cosimo Spera, collaborative intelligence, contact center AI, real-time agent assist, EU AI Act, AI compliance, hiring philosophy, small wins, failure, second-time founder, mobile payments, founder identity, team leadership

Welcome to Founder Real Talk, a podcast for founders, by founders. 

This week, Josh sits down with Daphne Pariser, CEO of Heron AI — the financial decision intelligence platform connecting fragmented systems like QuickBooks, NetSuite, Excel, and CRMs into a single operating layer for mid-sized businesses. Daphne is a second-time founder with a PhD from Harvard and MIT (MIT was Heron AI's first investor). She opens up about the pitch where someone fell asleep and told her it was the worst presentation they'd ever seen, the hiring method that transformed her team, and the leadership shift from life-or-death intensity to genuine joy.

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This episode was brought to you by Wisdom Partners. If you’re looking for more real conversations, practical resources, and honest founder stories, follow us for upcoming episodes of Founder Real Talk. We invite you to subscribe to our Substack newsletters to receive weekly articles, insights, and resources designed to support founders through every stage of the journey!

Contact us: wisdompartners.llc/contact

Subscribe to our Substack: blog.wisdompartners.llc

Chapters 

(00:00) - Intro

(02:42) - Why mid-sized businesses need an operating system

(06:33) - The passion for helping SMBs make and save millions

(08:11) - Building an architecture that outperforms much larger teams

(11:32) - The hiring method that changed everything: paid 3-day trials

(15:48) - The silver tsunami: preserving institutional knowledge before it retires

(20:05) - Evolving as a leader: less ego, more joy

(26:04) - What still needs to evolve: storytelling and moving beyond founder-led sales

(27:45) - Investing in yourself: pay yourself a salary

(31:01) - The burnout paradox of early-stage investing

(32:12) - The intros Daphne is looking for

(33:00) - Closing thoughts

Links & Resources 

• Heron AI: https://www.heronai.com/
• Daphne’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daphne-pariser
  

Keywords 

founders, entrepreneurship, second-time founder, Heron AI, Daphne Perser, financial decision intelligence, business intelligence, BI, mid-sized businesses, SMB, accounting technology, client advisory services, CAS, silver tsunami, institutional knowledge, MIT-backed startups, fundraising, hiring, paid trials, joy in leadership, founder burnout, ownership culture

Welcome to Founder Real Talk, a podcast for founders, by founders. 

We explore the real journey of building and growing a company. Each episode, we go beyond the highlight reel to unpack the strategies, decisions, and hard lessons that shaped successful businesses, revealing the good, the bad, and the ugly behind the growth.

This week, Josh sits down with Amodhi Weeresinghe, founder and CEO of Coura — the product and go-to-market strategy studio that helps non-technical, first-time founders bring software companies to life. In five years, Coura has completed 600+ projects with a 97% client return rate. But on paper, last year was Amodhi's best year — and it was also the year she nearly burned out. She opens up about the 80% team downsize she made at peak revenue, the moment she realized she didn't like who she was becoming, and why she believes the most grounded founders are the most effective ones.

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This episode was brought to you by Wisdom Partners. If you’re looking for more real conversations, practical resources, and honest founder stories, follow us for upcoming episodes of Founder Real Talk. We invite you to subscribe to our Substack newsletters to receive weekly articles, insights, and resources designed to support founders through every stage of the journey!

Contact us: wisdompartners.llc/contact

Subscribe to our Substack: blog.wisdompartners.llc

Chapters 

(00:00) - Intro

(02:14) - Bridging the gap between idea and reality

(04:12) - How to actually get founders to pause

(07:19) - Finding the true minimum viable product

(11:04) - Why non-technical founders keep getting disregarded

(13:43) - 600 projects, 97% return rate — and a team downsized by 80%

(20:41) - What it feels like to do the work you're exceptional at

(24:03) - "I didn't like the person I was becoming"

(25:54) - The real cost of hyper-growth

(28:33) - Family isn't in competition with business

(35:37) - The intros Amodhi is looking for

(38:17) - Closing thoughts

Links & Resources

• Amodhi’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amodhi-weeresinghe
• Coura: https://coura.io/
  
  

Keywords 

founders, entrepreneurship, non-technical founders, product strategy, go-to-market, MVP, minimum viable product, Coura, Amodhi Weeresinghe, service business, downsizing, right-sizing, founder burnout, family and business, sanctuary space, adaptive leadership, mom founders, first-time founders, technical co-founder, product-market fit

Welcome to Founder Real Talk, a podcast for founders, by founders. 

This week, Josh sits down with David Pollak, founder of Spice Labs — the team building a mathematical model of software to help enterprises audit and remediate their code before quantum computers break the cryptography holding the internet together. According to Google, that day is 2029. David opens up about why being a CEO is the loneliest job in the world (and why every founder needs a "coffee buddy or wine buddy"), the hard-earned lesson from an IBM partnership that shaped his sales philosophy for the next 25 years, and why he thinks enterprise software should feel more like Duolingo.

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This episode was brought to you by Wisdom Partners. If you’re looking for more real conversations, practical resources, and honest founder stories, follow us for upcoming episodes of Founder Real Talk. We invite you to subscribe to our Substack newsletters to receive weekly articles, insights, and resources designed to support founders through every stage of the journey!

Contact us: wisdompartners.llc/contact

Subscribe to our Substack: blog.wisdompartners.llc

Chapters 

(00:00) - Intro

(01:52) - Being a CEO is the loneliest job in the world

(04:22) - What Spice Labs does and what post-quantum cryptography actually means

(11:00) - The Gartner moment that changed the company's trajectory

(15:21) - Working with old colleagues who become teammates again

(19:23) - Two decisions that made investors cranky (and made the product bulletproof)

(22:11) - The IBM lesson: understand the chain of incentives

(26:00) - Delivering Reese's-Pieces moments in enterprise software

(31:44) - Evolving from short-tempered founder to (maybe too) patient CEO

(35:58) - Challenge vs. relationship: the leadership balance

(36:10) - The intros David is looking for

(38:30) - Closing thoughts

Links & Resources 

• David’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bearfeeder/
• Spice Labs Website: https://www.spicelabs.io/
• Gartner's post-quantum cryptography Top 6 CISO priority recommendation: https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2026-02-05-gartner-identifies-the-top-cybersecurity-trends-for-2026

Keywords 

founders, entrepreneurship, cybersecurity, post-quantum cryptography, PQC, quantum computing, Spice Labs, David Pollack, enterprise sales, CISO, chief information security officer, first-time founders, founder loneliness, coffee buddy, wine buddy, IBM partnerships, chain of incentives, enterprise software UX, patient leadership, challenge vs relationship, ownership culture

Welcome to Founder Real Talk, a podcast for founders, by founders. 

We explore the real journey of building and growing a company. Each episode, we go beyond the highlight reel to unpack the strategies, decisions, and hard lessons that shaped successful businesses, revealing the good, the bad, and the ugly behind the growth.

This week, Josh sits down with Abhi Yadav, three-time founder and CEO of iCustomer — the decision OS helping brands turn their first-party data into privacy-aware, AI-driven marketing at scale. Abhi opens up about a lesson every first-time CEO learns the hard way (usually too late), why the "minimum viable network" now matters more than the minimum viable product, and why building a company in 2026 is harder than it was ten years ago — even for a repeat founder.

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This episode was brought to you by Wisdom Partners. If you’re looking for more real conversations, practical resources, and honest founder stories, follow us for upcoming episodes of Founder Real Talk. We invite you to subscribe to our Substack newsletters to receive weekly articles, insights, and resources designed to support founders through every stage of the journey!

Contact us: wisdompartners.llc/contact

Subscribe to our Substack: blog.wisdompartners.llc

Chapters

(00:00) - Intro

(02:07) - The changing landscape of privacy-aware advertising

(05:21) - What "first-party data" actually means (and why it's the new oil)

(12:15) - Launching a Product Hunt hit

(16:29) - Learning to manage the board — or get managed by it

(23:42) - Cutting through the noise in enterprise sales

(28:22) - Evolving from product-driven to operator-driven

(31:44) - Why building a startup is harder now than 10 years ago

(33:15) - Minimum viable network > minimum viable product

(34:32) - The intros Abhi is looking for

(35:24) - Closing thoughts

Links & Resources

• Abhi’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abhi123
• iCustomer: https://www.icustomer.ai/

Keywords

founders, entrepreneurship, three-time founder, repeat founder, iCustomer, Abhi Yadav, first-party data, decision OS, marketing AI, adtech, martech, privacy-aware advertising, retail media networks, CDP, customer data platforms, board management, operator mindset, minimum viable network, SaaS-pocalypse, AI-native software, enterprise sales

Welcome to Founder Real Talk, a podcast for founders, by founders. 

We explore the real journey of building and growing a company. Each episode, we go beyond the highlight reel to unpack the strategies, decisions, and hard lessons that shaped successful businesses, revealing the good, the bad, and the ugly behind the growth.

This week, Josh sits down with James O'Connor, CEO of Innovation Within — the team behind the Discovery Platform, an AI-powered system that helps founders turn their ideas into validated business models before they start building. James has been in Silicon Valley since 1977. He's seen every inflection point in the industry. He opens up about why 40% of startups fail building things nobody wants, why vibe coding is making that problem worse, and why he treats his own company like an ongoing experiment — including how that mindset helped him survive nearly losing the business during COVID.

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This episode was brought to you by Wisdom Partners. If you’re looking for more real conversations, practical resources, and honest founder stories, follow us for upcoming episodes of Founder Real Talk. We invite you to subscribe to our Substack newsletters to receive weekly articles, insights, and resources designed to support founders through every stage of the journey!

Contact us: wisdompartners.llc/contact

Subscribe to our Substack: blog.wisdompartners.llc

Chapters 

(00:00) - Intro

(01:19) - Turning ideas into business models (and 80 hypotheses)

(09:26) - Why founders avoid customer discovery

(11:04) - Who actually pays for this (and the founder paradox)

(20:49) - COVID nearly killed the business

(21:14) - Treating your startup like a scientific experiment

(26:49) - Evolving from CTO mindset to CEO

(28:55) - AI as a founder's secret weapon

(29:17) - The next paradigm shift: getting the idea out into the world

(31:00) - Closing thoughts

Links & Resources 

• James’ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesoco
• Innovation Within: https://innovationwithin.com/
  
  

Keywords

founders, entrepreneurship, customer discovery, startup failure, business model validation, Innovation Within, James O'Connor, Discovery Platform, AI for founders, deep tech, NSF, NIH, lean startup, scientific method, vibe coding, AI tools, MVP validation, market validation, founder psychology, founder coaching, ownership culture

Welcome to Founder Real Talk, a podcast for founders, by founders. 

We explore the real journey of building and growing a company. Each episode, we go beyond the highlight reel to unpack the strategies, decisions, and hard lessons that shaped successful businesses, revealing the good, the bad, and the ugly behind the growth.

This week, Josh sits down with Amanda Lukoff, CEO and co-founder of Eleplan, the AI-powered platform helping the 63 million family caregivers in the US organize, share, and contextualize the information they're holding in their heads. Eleplan was born out of Amanda's own experience caring for her brother Liam, and a single hospital moment with her mom that changed how she saw the entire problem. Fresh off winning the inaugural ASU GSV Global AI Challenge in San Diego, Amanda opens up about leading from the heart, navigating the channel-overload of a hockey-stick moment, and what it really takes to make the transition from quarterback to coach.

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This episode was brought to you by Wisdom Partners. If you’re looking for more real conversations, practical resources, and honest founder stories, follow us for upcoming episodes of Founder Real Talk. We invite you to subscribe to our Substack newsletters to receive weekly articles, insights, and resources designed to support founders through every stage of the journey!

Contact us: wisdompartners.llc/contact

Subscribe to our Substack: blog.wisdompartners.llc

Chapters 

(00:00) - Intro

(01:52) - 63 million family caregivers and the information overwhelm

(07:07) - The yellow folder moment that started Eleplan

(11:05) - Winning the ASU GSV Global AI Challenge

(16:37) - Why founders should trust their gut

(19:07) - Heart vs head leadership

(23:45) - Choosing one channel out of many

(27:38) - Evolving as a leader: authenticity as a superpower

(30:39) - The next evolution: building responsibly toward the hockey stick

(32:26) - From team quarterback to team coach

(38:10) - Closing thoughts

Links & Resources

• Amanda’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanda-lukof
• Eleplan Website: https://eleplan.com/

Keywords

founders, entrepreneurship, family caregiving, AI for caregivers, Eleplan, Amanda Lukoff, special needs caregiving, aging parents, autism support, healthcare technology, AI platforms, ASU GSV, AI Challenge, heart-led leadership, authenticity, ownership culture, founder transitions, hockey stick growth, channel strategy, two-sided marketplace, mission-driven startups

Welcome to Founder Real Talk, a podcast for founders, by founders. 

We explore the real journey of building and growing a company. Each episode, we go beyond the highlight reel to unpack the strategies, decisions, and hard lessons that shaped successful businesses, revealing the good, the bad, and the ugly behind the growth.

This week, Josh sits down with Jose Bulatao, founder of Venueconex — an AI-powered event booking marketplace. Jose is on a mission to be the first solo founder to build a billion-dollar company. He's doing it through a model he calls "Uber for Builders" — part-time-for-equity, where contributors invest their time the way investors invest money, with the option to convert into equity at Series A. Jose opens up about burning the boats on his nine-to-five, the aha moment when in-house AI agents took 10 months of manual work down to weeks, and the painful lesson every founder has to learn the hard way: talk to your first 100 customers.

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This episode was brought to you by Wisdom Partners. If you’re looking for more real conversations, practical resources, and honest founder stories, follow us for upcoming episodes of Founder Real Talk. We invite you to subscribe to our Substack newsletters to receive weekly articles, insights, and resources designed to support founders through every stage of the journey!

Contact us: wisdompartners.llc/contact

Subscribe to our Substack: blog.wisdompartners.llc

Chapters 

(00:00) - Intro

(01:33) - Airbnb for events, powered by AI

(04:14) - Uber for Builders: the part-time-for-equity model

(09:34) - The aha moment that 10x'd the company

(12:45) - Get to your first 100 customers

(20:08) - Start with the buyer, not the seller

(21:56) - Building a win-win-win marketplace

(28:32) - Evolving as a leader

(30:07) - The intros Jose is looking for

(32:40) - Closing thoughts

Links & Resources 

• Jose’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jose-bulatao

Keywords 

founders, entrepreneurship, solo founder, AI marketplace, event tech, Venuconex, Jose Bulatau, part-time for equity, Uber for Builders, OPC, one person company, AI agents, agentic systems, two-sided marketplace, Y Combinator, burn the boats, do things that don't scale, first 100 customers, Sam Altman, billion-dollar unicorn, corporate event planning