Tech Can't Save Us

This week on Tech Can’t Save Us, host Paul David is joined by Dilip Chetan, Founder of Recursio Lab, the company behind Defensible Zone, a framework and product that helps HR teams and hiring managers see which roles are genuinely changing, which human capabilities will stay valuable, and which candidates and employees already bring them. Drawing on more than twenty years at Google, Meta, Oracle and Salesforce, Dilip built Defensible Zone solo in four months, shipping products for individuals, small businesses and now companies.

They discuss why the hiring pipeline is breaking at the moment companies need it most, from applicant tracking systems that filter out qualified candidates to the strange loop of hiring people only to lay them off months later in the name of AI. Dilip explains his view that AI is automating mediocrity, and how candidates are gaming the system with white-font keyword stuffing and prompt injection hidden in their CVs. He walks through how Defensible Zone assesses judgment, taste and decision-making, and why it gives new hires a ninety-day plan rather than relying on a job description.

The conversation covers what it takes to sell into mid-market and enterprise HR as a one-person company, from narrowing the focus after talking to HR leaders to deciding whether to sit alongside existing ATS platforms or replace parts of them. Dilip also shares what leaving big tech taught him about talent, why he argues for redeploying people rather than replacing them, and the first honest step he would recommend to anyone worried they are on the wrong side of the AI shift.

Find more about Recursio Lab here: https://defensiblezone.ai/
Follow Dilip Chetan here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dilipchetan

This week on Tech Can’t Save Us, host Paul David is joined by Brent Hagan, Chief Supply Chain Officer of Lob, the direct mail automation platform that bridges software and physical execution. Lob lets businesses send personalised, data-driven mailpieces at scale, backed by a nationwide print and delivery network that Brent oversees end to end.

They discuss how direct mail, long seen as a slow, legacy channel, is being rebuilt to run at the speed and precision of digital marketing. Brent explains what it means to build the operational backbone of an automated mail platform, from manufacturing and partner networks to analytics and warehouse automation. He also unpacks the launch of Lob Logistics, a new offering that combines shipments and improves pricing across the physical mail supply chain, and how Lob keeps tight control of quality and lead times across a distributed partner network.

The conversation covers Lob’s shift towards a vertical supply chain model, including bringing materials procurement and middle-mile freight in-house to unlock margin, and how Brent weighs risk against opportunity when making major capital decisions. Brent also shares lessons from his career across Amazon’s robotic fulfilment and sortation networks and Deliverr through its acquisition by Shopify, including leading an 800-person team in a 24/7 operation, and why vision-casting and making customer centricity relevant to every team remain at the heart of how he leads.

Find more about Lob here: https://www.lob.com/
Follow Brent Hagan here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brent-hagan-530284173/

This week on Tech Can’t Save Us, host Paul David is joined by Justin Steele, Co-Founder & CEO of Kindora, a public benefit corporation using AI to level the playing field in philanthropic funding. Kindora has built an AI fundraising platform that reasons like a program officer, narrowing thousands of loosely relevant funders down to the few actively funding a nonprofit’s work.

They discuss why the nonprofits closest to social problems have long paid the most for the least useful fundraising tools, and why incumbents serving the top of the market are poorly placed to change that. Justin explains how Kindora scores every match across six dimensions, from geographic fit to grant-size alignment and funding momentum, and how the platform now covers the full grant lifecycle: discovery, funder research, drafting, AI-powered pitch practice and pipeline tracking. He also shares how the product grew from a prototype he built for his own nonprofit, Outdoorithm Collective, into a platform that nonprofits can now use directly inside AI assistants such as Claude.

The conversation covers how Kindora turns early momentum into durable, paying relationships with resource-stretched organisations, and how Justin weighs his time across Kindora, his AI product studio True Steele Labs, and Outdoorithm Collective. Justin also shares what ten years directing nearly $700 million in philanthropy at Google.org taught him about how funding decisions really get made, how he taught himself to build software without an engineering title, and why he believes proximity to a problem is the most powerful advantage a founder can have.

Find more about Kindora here: https://www.kindora.co/
Follow Justin Steele here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinrichardsteele/

This week on Tech Can’t Save Us, host Paul David is joined by Farley Thomas, Co-Founder & CEO of Manageable, a leadership development platform on a mission to give everyone the gift of a great manager. Manageable brings executive-grade coaching to the managers who have historically been handed nothing, blending live, expert-led learning delivered globally in any language with data-driven insight and a daily self-learning habit.

They discuss why the modern workplace is overdue a radical rethink of management, with the vast majority of managers receiving no training at all and many senior leaders never having had any. Farley explains how the support pyramid is upside down, with consultants, facilitators and coaches lavished on the most senior while first-time managers are simply told they’ve got it, leaving organisations full of ‘overnight leaders‘. He walks through how Manageable inverts that pyramid, replacing passive, box-ticking training with live learning and lasting habit formation, and aligning each manager’s growth with the performance goals of the business.

The conversation covers what it takes to scale a high-social-impact B2B platform in a crowded HR tech market, from proving hard ROI to sceptical, data-driven buyers and navigating long enterprise procurement cycles, to building a consistent global coaching network and Farley’s ambition to turn better management into a movement as AI reshapes the middle layer of organisations. Farley also shares his personal journey, from starting out as an under-represented immigrant from India with no powerful connections, to nearly two decades in investment banking and asset management culminating on HSBC’s executive committees, and the conviction that led him to leave a thriving coaching practice and become a tech co-founder in 2020.

Find more about Manageable here: https://www.manageable.works/
Follow Farley Thomas here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/farley-thomas-55655/

This week on Tech Can’t Save Us, host Paul David is joined by Steve Kramer, VP of Product of PayNearMe, a fintech platform that helps businesses simplify and accelerate the way they collect payments. PayNearMe brings every major payment type into a single platform, from Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal and Venmo to cards, ACH and cash at more than 62,000 retail locations across the US.

They discuss the friction points that still make paying a bill harder than it should be, and how the expectations of the “everything-now” economy are forcing billers to rethink the payment experience. Steve explains how PayNearMe balances high-security payment architecture with a seamless user interface, and why its ability to accept cash at retail sets it apart from digital-only competitors. He also unpacks how digital wallets lift conversion for billers, how electronic check solutions keep returns and fraud in check, and how payment behaviour data helps clients improve their collection rates.

The conversation covers the industry’s shift from digital-first to mobile-only, the hurdles of growing in highly regulated sectors, and how to balance custom features for Fortune 500 clients against a scalable, universal product. Steve also looks ahead to real-time payments as a catalyst for growth and explains how PayNearMe competes with legacy processors that hold vast market share but innovate slowly. Drawing on more than 25 years in payments and his roots as a Virginia Tech computer science graduate, he shares his leadership philosophy and his approach to communicating technical roadmaps to non-technical executives.

Find more about PayNearMe here: https://www.paynearme.com/
Follow Steve Kramer here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ADD-STEVE-KRAMER-PROFILE

This week on Tech Can’t Save Us, host Paul David is joined by Beth Flippo, CEO and Founder of DEXA, a Dayton-based autonomous logistics company transforming last-mile delivery from the birthplace of aviation. Spun out of TELEGRID Technologies in 2021, DEXA designs, manufactures and operates its own FAA-certified DE-2020 drone, turning two-day shipping into deliveries in under 15 minutes.

They discuss how drone delivery is shifting from futuristic novelty to everyday infrastructure, and why Beth sees an emerging autonomy economy as the next evolution of the gig economy. Beth explains how DEXA’s roots in secure defence communications shape its approach, from the encrypted mesh networking behind its AeroGRID+ swarm technology to the customer-facing platforms that link retailers’ orders to real-time flight operations. She also unpacks what makes DEXA rare in the sector: as one of only four fully integrated drone manufacturer-operators in the US, alongside Amazon, Google and Zipline, it controls the entire delivery ecosystem end to end.

The conversation covers the long road through commercial aviation regulation, which saw DEXA become only the seventh US company to secure FAA Part 135 Air Carrier certification, alongside a nationwide BVLOS waiver. They explore how DEXA turns pilots like its early Kroger partnership into lasting integrations, what investors look for after its $15 million seed round, and which signals tell the team a city is ready for drone delivery. Beth also shares how two decades in financial technology at UBS, Goldman Sachs and Cantor Fitzgerald prepared her for founding a deep-tech company, the steep learning curve of moving from CTO to CEO, and her advice for women building hardware businesses in tech and aviation.

Find more about DEXA here: https://www.flydexa.com

This week on Tech Can’t Save Us, host Paul David is joined by Anatolii Papulov, Founder & CEO of NewOrbit, a Reading-based satellite manufacturer opening up a band of space that has been written off as too hostile for commercial flight for sixty years. NewOrbit is building the world’s first commercial satellites designed to operate reliably in Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO), between 200 and 300km, powered by its own in-house air-breathing electric propulsion system.

They discuss why VLEO has sat empty since the dawn of the space age, with aerodynamic drag, atomic oxygen and aerodynamic torque meaning a conventional satellite at that altitude survives weeks rather than years, and why an increasingly crowded, debris-heavy Low Earth Orbit makes the case for a self-cleaning orbit more urgent than ever. Anatolii explains why almost every subsystem has to be rebuilt from scratch to keep a satellite alive at 200km, and how NewOrbit’s AURA air-breathing thruster turns a few days in orbit into five years. He also makes the counterintuitive economic case: for the price of one conventional satellite, customers could fly a whole fleet of smaller VLEO satellites delivering up to 20x better imagery, alongside 5G direct-to-device connectivity and live HD video from space.

The conversation covers what it takes to scale a European deep-tech company towards a first launch in 2028, from closing an oversubscribed $18.5 million Series A led by Voyager Ventures to hiring thirty scientists and engineers in a field where the skills barely exist as a category, and selling infrastructure rather than a consumer service. They explore the sovereignty argument for a UK-led VLEO capability at a time when Europe has none of its own. Anatolii also shares his journey from stargazing in rural Siberia to physics research in collaboration with MIT, how he and co-founder Ruslan Rakhimov split the work, and the conviction it takes to bet a career on unlocking a single orbit.

Find more about NewOrbit here: https://neworbit.space/

This week on Tech Can’t Save Us, host Paul David is joined by Claire Coady, Founder of The Attention Practice, a specialist communications consultancy built for what Claire calls the “Age of Attention Scarcity“. Drawing on more than 20 years of advising global brands, governments and NGOs, Claire and her team fuse brand and media strategy, audience research, information risk and the science of attention to help organisations cut through in an overwhelmed world.

They discuss why attention should be treated as a finite resource, and why it now belongs on every CEO’s agenda rather than being left to the marketing team. Claire explains the tipping point that led her to found a practice dedicated entirely to attention, and how the battle for attention changes when the subject is complex or sensitive rather than commercial. She walks through her approach to designing strategies that sustain attention rather than simply capturing it, from applying behavioural change insights to building a brand’s defences against the attention hacks used to spread disinformation.

The conversation covers the realities of scaling a human-first, research-led consultancy in an AI-driven information environment, including how generative AI is complicating the attention problem, how the “Can We Have Your Attention?” podcast and Claire’s Substack attract government and institutional clients, and how she bridges the cultural attention gap across Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Claire also shares what award-winning, high-budget campaigns and shoestring projects have each taught her about attention, how she thinks about risk and resilience, and how her commitment to social progress as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts shapes her day-to-day work.

Find more about The Attention Practice here: https://www.theattentionpractice.com/
Follow Claire Coady here: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/clairecoady

This week on Tech Can’t Save Us, host Paul David is joined by Mona Potter, MD, Co-Founder and Chief Medical Strategy Officer of InStride Health, an insurance-based virtual provider of specialty anxiety and OCD treatment for young people aged 7 to 26. Founded by two Harvard-trained clinicians who spent over a decade building intensive anxiety programmes at McLean Hospital, InStride delivers a purposefully time-bound course of care, typically four to eight months, through a dedicated three-person team of therapist, exposure coach and psychiatrist.

They discuss why treatment with decades of evidence behind it still fails to reach most families, blocked by long waitlists, a shortage of specialists and geography rather than by any gap in the science. Mona explains the InStride model: cognitive behavioural therapy with exposure at its centre, delivered virtually so that practice happens in the places where anxiety actually shows up, at school, in a restaurant, at home, rather than in a clinician’s office. She points to the outcomes InStride publishes every year, including 97% of graduates showing clinical improvement and fewer than 1% being hospitalised in the year after finishing the programme.

The conversation covers what it takes to scale specialty care without thinning it out: going in network with major commercial insurers, expanding state by state, and using technology, including AI trained on InStride’s own clinical data, to support care teams while every clinical decision stays with a clinician. Mona also shares what nearly two decades inside the Mass General, McLean and Harvard Medical School system taught her about the distance between care that works and care families can actually get, and why she left to build something that closes it.

Find more about InStride Health here: https://www.instride.health/

Follow Mona Potter, MD here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mona-potter-md-28ba2179/

This week on Tech Can’t Save Us, host Paul David is joined by Adam Harvey and Kiran Chauhan, Co-Founders of Proofed, the editorial partner behind some of the fastest-moving content teams in the world. Proofed combines a global network of hand-picked expert editors with proprietary technology, giving businesses a fully managed editorial desk that scales with their content volume rather than their headcount.

They discuss how the editorial landscape has been reshaped by generative AI, and why volume without quality control has become one of the biggest risks facing content teams. Adam and Kiran explain what humanising AI-generated work actually involves in practice, from stripping out the flatness and repetition that makes readers disengage to catching the bias, insensitivity and quiet factual errors that LLMs introduce. They also unpack the mechanics of the model itself: a dedicated editorial team matched to the client’s subject matter, overseen by a Service Delivery Manager, running 24/7 and costing less than a single in-house editor.

The conversation covers what it takes to scale a service that depends on top-tier human expertise, including the bottlenecks of recruiting and training editors, staying ahead of good enough AI tools, and building a trans-Atlantic company across the US and UK while serving clients from early-stage startups to Fortune 500 teams. Adam and Kiran also share the personal side of the story: Kiran’s route into editorial via computer science, building surveying and large-scale event operations, Adam’s pivot out of a technology career at American Express, and how both approach the balance between scaling a startup and family life.

Find more about Proofed here: https://proofed.com/

Follow Adam Harvey here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamjohnharvey/

Follow Kiran Chauhan here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kiran-chauhan/