In this episode, I’m joined by Philip Johnston, founder of LumenOrbit, a company pioneering AI-powered data centers in space. Philip shares his insights into the radical shift happening in space infrastructure.

We talk about:

🛰️ Why space? The key drivers pushing data centers beyond Earth

🌡️ The biggest technical challenge: Keeping GPUs cool in a vacuum

🚀 Upcoming launches: LumenOrbit’s first satellite launching on a Falcon 9 this year

📉 Fundraising lessons: Raising capital in booming vs. tough markets

💰 Surviving market downturns: Why raising enough capital is critical

This episode is packed with insights for entrepreneurs building in deep tech, AI, and beyond. 🚀

Important Links:

Lumen Orbit: https://lumenorbit.com

In this episode, I’m joined by Gabriel Ferraz, co-founder of Creem, a company that helps SaaS founders and digital product creators sell globally without the headaches of tax and compliance. We dive into the complexities of scaling a business internationally, the hidden pitfalls of payment processing, and why building a Merchant of Record (MoR) is the next big thing for indie hackers and global entrepreneurs.

We talk about:

🌎 The tax and compliance nightmare of selling SaaS globally

⚖️ How startups unknowingly break the law when expanding internationally

💰 Why Stripe’s ease-of-use can be misleading for global businesses

📉 The challenges of handling international sales without slowing down growth

🔍 Why a Merchant of Record (MoR) is becoming a necessity for SaaS founders

🏗️ The journey of building Crim—from crypto to fintech to simplifying payments

🛠️ The pain of integrating payments as an indie hacker

💡 How automation could have saved months of operational effort

🏢 The future of a Company of Record—a new way to build startups with no legal setup

This episode is a must-listen for any founder looking to scale beyond their home country and avoid the compliance landmines that can kill growth.

Important Links:

Creem - https://creem.io

In this episode, I speak to Nancy Harhut, a behavioral science and marketing expert, co-founder of HBT Marketing, and author of Using Behavioral Science in Marketing. Nancy shares her insights on how behavioral science can transform your marketing strategy and help you avoid common pitfalls.

What We Cover:

🤔 The surprising mistake most founders make when pricing their product

🔍 Why being too positive in your marketing can backfire

💬 How a simple tweak in word choice can double your conversions

🎯 The underestimated power of autonomy in driving sales

🧠 Why "simple" messaging might not mean "vague" messaging—and how to strike the perfect balance

Nancy also drops actionable tips and hacks that you can apply immediately to level up your marketing, whether you’re just starting out or scaling up.

Resources Mentioned:

📖 Nancy’s book: Using Behavioral Science in Marketing - https://amzn.in/d/cVXKUEv

🌐 Visit HBT Marketing: https://HBTMKTG.com

📚 Recommended reads:

The Truth About Pricing by Melina Palmer - https://amzn.in/d/fZBv3Ao

What Your Customers Want and Can’t Tell You by Melina Palmer - https://amzn.in/d/a4zJmYd

In this episode, I’m joined by Yann Leger, co-founder and CEO of Koyeb, a cloud infrastructure company redefining how applications are deployed globally.

Yann shares his incredible journey of building cloud service providers for over 14 years and the lessons he’s learned along the way.

From scaling engineering teams to managing remote work and navigating competitive markets, this conversation is packed with valuable insights for entrepreneurs.

We talk about:

🏗️ Challenges of scaling engineering teams from 10 to 130+ in 3 months

🌍 Managing remote teams and fostering culture across continents

🛠️ How Koyeb’s platform enables scaling to zero for infinite dev environments

🧩 Competing and partnering with giants like AWS and GCP

🤑 Building frugal organizations while solving hard technical problems

⚙️ Why startups should avoid building infrastructure unless necessary

🎯 The future of AI and serverless infrastructure: Key trends and cost efficiencies

This episode offers valuable insights for founders hitting the scaleup phase!

Important Links:

Try Koyeb at https://koyeb.com

Podcast produced by Shop 71 - Hilarious startup merch. https://shop.7tea1.com

In this episode, I’m joined by Jonathan Chizick, CEO & Co-founder at SmartPath. A seasoned entrepreneur, marketer, and startup advisor with a track record of scaling high-growth companies and securing transformative partnerships.

We discuss:

👨‍🏫 The challenges of homeschooling and why 6 million+ kids in the U.S. represent a growing market.

🤖 How AI simplifies things for parents.

🎯 Lessons from Jonathan’s startup journey

Jonathan also shares stories from his entrepreneurial past, including navigating U.S. expansion for international startups, partnering with incumbents like Concur, and scaling AppZen from 5 to 50+ employees while securing partnerships with global leaders.

This episode is packed with actionable insights for founders tackling underserved markets, scaling early-stage ventures, and leveraging AI to create meaningful impact.

P.S. If you enjoyed this conversation, share it with your network! 🙌

Subscribe for more episodes on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or your favorite platform. 

Links:

Checkout SmartPath at https://smartpath.school/

If you're interested in quirky startup merch for your team checkout https://shop.7tea1.com

In this episode, I'm joined by James Fyfe, co-founder of Portant, a document automation platform bridging HubSpot and Google Workspace. James shares his fascinating entrepreneurial journey, from bootstrapping Portant to profitability.

We dive into:

🌐 Building in the HubSpot Ecosystem: Strategies for Growth and Differentiation

🎯 The Power of Focus: Doubling Down on Your Core Market

📊 Challenges of Enterprise Sales and the Procurement Maze

🚀 Why Less Money Can Drive Greater Innovation and Success

If you're considering building within an ecosystem or navigating the bootstrap vs. VC funding decision, you won't want to miss it!

You can try Portant at https://portant.co

P.S. if you're interested in quirky startup merch for your team checkout https://shop.7tea1.com

In this episode, I sit down with Stas Shakirov, CEO of Humy.ai, a platform transforming education by bringing historical and language arts learning to classrooms through AI.

We discuss:

- 🚀 Pivoting from Mental Health to Education: The story behind Humy.ai’s shift in focus and its impact on the company's direction.

- 🎓 Building for Teachers: How Humy.ai collaborates with U.S. educators to craft a customized AI-driven platform that enhances classroom engagement.

- 💬 Talking to Customers: Unique strategies for gathering valuable feedback from teachers and students alike.

- 🌐 International Expansion: The challenges of selling to U.S. schools from Sweden, including the complexities of localizing content for different states.

- 🧠 Mental Health & Self-Care as a Founder: Insights into managing stress, self-care practices, and the balance between personal and professional life.

- 🔧 Building on AI: How Humy.ai utilizes ChatGPT for development, the hurdles of working with GPT models, and their future AI plans.

- 🗣️ Product Testing and Privacy: Handling sensitive data in educational environments and designing for student privacy.

Packed with actionable advice on everything from customer engagement to the importance of founder well-being, this episode is a must-listen for entrepreneurs interested in AI applications in education and those navigating the challenges of startup life.

Links:

Humy - https://humy.ai

Podcast produced by Shop 71 - Hilarious startup merch. https://shop.7tea1.com

In this episode, I’m joined by Ian Jennings, Founder and CEO, TestDriver.AI. They're redefining QA and automated testing with AI.

Ian has been working in developer experience for more than 10 years. He co-founded hackathon organization platform Hacker League (acquired by Mashery and Intel) before spending 6 years at PubNub building developer products and establishing their developer experience strategy.

We talk about:

🚀 Hackathons

🛠 Why Testing Web Apps Is Just the Beginning

🤖 How AI Can Handle the Toughest QA Challenges for Engineers

🔧 The Hidden Complexities of Cross-Platform Development

👩‍💻 Why Desktop Apps

📊 Tips on Building a Strong, Autonomous Engineering Team

This episode is packed with actionable insights for developers, entrepreneurs, and tech enthusiasts. If you want to understand the future of AI in QA testing and how to tackle hard tech problems give it a listen.

Links:

In this episode, I chat with Nick McEvily, a seasoned fractional Chief Product Officer, serial entrepreneur, and Founding Partner at Further Faster Ventures. Before this, he co-founded Mode Mobile.

Nick’s biggest lesson? It’s not about building the perfect product—it’s about building the right one.

𝙺𝚎𝚢 𝙷𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚕𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝𝚜:

🛠 𝚂𝚌𝚊𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝙿𝚛𝚘𝚍𝚞𝚌𝚝 𝚃𝚎𝚊𝚖𝚜: How Nick helps early-stage startups translate customer feedback into product strategies.

🚀 𝙿𝚒𝚟𝚘𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚘 𝚆𝚒𝚗: The journey of Mode Mobile’s multiple pivots, from a mobile app builder to a blockchain-backed platform.

🔍 𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝙿𝚘𝚠𝚎𝚛 𝚘𝚏 𝙵𝚛𝚊𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚊𝚕 𝚆𝚘𝚛𝚔: How fractional roles give Nick the flexibility to explore diverse projects and invest in promising startups.

💬 𝚃𝚛𝚊𝚗𝚜𝚙𝚊𝚛𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚢 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝙸𝚗𝚟𝚎𝚜𝚝𝚘𝚛𝚜: Nick’s take on navigating the complex dynamics between founders and investors.

👥 𝚂𝚖𝚊𝚛𝚝 𝙷𝚒𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚐: Why hiring slow and designing clear paths for employees is key for startup success.

This episode is a must-listen for entrepreneurs looking to master product-market fit, understand the value of strategic pivots, and build lasting relationships with investors.

#startups #product #entrepreneurship

This episode is sponsored by Brella. Brella is the world’s leading event app for conferences and trade shows that prioritize high-quality matchmaking and networking.

https://www.brella.io/event-app

The podcast is produced by 7tea1. Checkout the 7tea1 shop for Founders at https://shop.7tea1.com

In this episode, I speak with Aleksa Mitrović, co-founder of Hyperaktiv, a platform that enhances customer engagement through data-driven insights.

Imagine committing to not building a product before making revenue. That's exactly what Aleksa and the team at Hyperaktiv did—here's how!

Key learnings:

🔥 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗺

Alexa shares how she and her co-founder met at Antler and why they prioritized finding the right co-founder over the business idea.

📊 𝗛𝘆𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗸𝘁𝗶𝘃'𝘀 𝗠𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻

Helping self-service businesses harness their data for growth, converting users, and optimizing engagement strategies.

🛠️ 𝗣𝗶𝘃𝗼𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗠𝗩𝗣𝘀

The importance of rapid iteration and learning and commitment to revenue.

🚀 𝗖𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆

How they used quadrant-based prioritization (importance vs. urgency) to discover high-intensity pain points.

💡 𝗙𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗸𝗲𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗶𝗻 𝗠𝗩𝗣

They stitched together existing tools like a jigsaw puzzle to create an MVP that worked before fully building the product.

🎯 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗚𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵

Hyperaktiv's approach to personalizing customer journeys based on user behavior and segments, which differentiates them from competitors.

💸 𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗻

Lessons on surviving the early startup phase by not spending until necessary and the perils of premature scaling.

Links:

https://www.hyperaktiv.ai/