In this episode of the Shift AI Podcast, Derek Slager, CTO and co-founder of Amperity, joins host Boaz Ashkenazy for a conversation that spans 10 years of company building, the evolution of AI-assisted software development, and what it really means to lead a technical organization through genuine disruption.

Derek shares the founding story of Amperity, how he and co-founder Kabir Shahani stumbled into the customer data problem while building marketing automation at their previous company, Aperture, and how that experience became the thesis for building an entire platform around getting data right.

The conversation moves into the heart of how AI has transformed Derek's work as a CTO and as an engineer. He describes the moment the shift felt real, the team dynamics of moving from individual AI exploration to a true team sport, and how Amperity is compounding the institutional knowledge locked in a decade of after-action reviews into something agents can now actually learn from. Derek addresses the "SaaS is dead" narrative head-on arguing that Amperity's data foundation is precisely the asset that makes agents genuinely useful for their customers.

Boaz and Derek close with a forward-looking exchange on agentic workflows in marketing, the importance of redesigning process and what a learning mindset means for individuals and organizations navigating what comes next.

This episode is essential listening for CTOs, data leaders, and operators who want to understand how the companies with the best data foundations are positioned to thrive in the agentic era.

Chapters

[00:00] Introduction: Derek's Path to Building Amperity

[02:13] What Amperity Is and Why It Took 10 Years to Build

[04:41] First Job: Early IT Work at Dad's Small Business in Monroe, WA

[06:14] The Founders Club: How Amperity Went to Market in 2016

[08:20] Why They're Running a New Founders Club 10 Years Later

[10:13] Both Sides of Claude Code: What Changed and When

[13:30] Living Through Disruption as a CTO and Engineer

[15:36] Making AI a Team Sport Instead of an Individual Pursuit

[17:04] The Moment It Really Clicked: A Simple Tool That Took 5 Minutes to Build

[19:09] Cultural Adoption: Skeptics to Believers Inside Amperity

[21:50] Compounding Engineering: After-Action Reviews as AI Training Data

[23:45] The Agent Wave Is Real: What It Means for a Customer Data Platform

[25:09] Amperity's Data Foundation as the Perfect Agent Substrate

[27:00] Redesigning Process, Not Just Adopting Tools

[28:57] Systems Thinking and the Future of Work

[30:04] Two Words: Learning Mindset

[33:01] How to Connect with Derek and Amperity

Connect with Derek Slager

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/derekslager/

Website: amperity.com

Connect with Boaz Ashkenazy

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/boazashkenazy/

Email: [email protected]