In this episode, Jamie sits down with Seva Ustinov, a serial entrepreneur and the founder of Elly Analytics — a performance marketing company reimagined with an internal AI Operating System at its core.

Seva shares his 20-year journey from founding a marketing agency in Russia to scaling a tech company in the U.S., and how the chaos of managing large teams led him to create a unified AI-powered “company brain.”

But what sets this conversation apart is the focus on HR, team dynamics, and operations — not just tech. Seva breaks down how automation and intelligent agents have drastically reduced meeting bloat, onboarding time, and internal interruptions — while still empowering human teams.

Jamie and Seva dive into how AI is changing the people side of business, and how any founder (technical or not) can begin building a smarter, more autonomous company.

1. “Professional services is a constant rollercoaster.” Seva scaled a 100+ person agency, then started over in tech, learning each level of leadership and operations by doing.
2. Internal AI Operating System: Elly uses AI agents and shared company memory to automate everything from onboarding to sales support and product feedback loops.
3. Hiring Tip: One of Seva’s first hires was a head of operations (aka “Chief of Everything Else”), relieving him from all the stress-inducing "other" problems most founders try to juggle.
4. AI-Driven HR: Elly’s system reduces Slack clutter and meeting overload by giving team members AI access to every piece of company knowledge — from past emails to product roadmaps.
5. True Automation Wins: A non-technical team member used their internal AI tool to build a complete customer sentiment dashboard in 6 hours — something that previously required entire teams.

"Everything else is always your personal problem — unless you hire someone to own it."

– On the role of a head of operations

"Your past experience often doesn’t help with the next level. You have to unlearn and rebuild."

– On leveling up as a founder

"Our company brain is always learning. It sits in on every meeting, remembers everything, and makes everyone smarter."

– On the power of an internal AI system

"It took me 5 minutes to generate a custom sales email from transcripts, competitor data, and context — something that would take a team hours before."

– On real-world automation with AI

"You can delegate tasks, but you can’t delegate responsibility."

– When asked what it really takes to be a business owner

1. Founders struggling with team scale, info overload, and inefficient workflows
2. Operations leaders interested in AI tools beyond dashboards
3. HR teams exploring how AI can support onboarding, knowledge sharing, and internal communication
4. Anyone curious about turning AI from hype into a real operating advantage

1. Website: ellyanalytics.com
2. LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sevaustinov
3. AI Agent Setup Template (mentioned in episode): Available on his LinkedIn posts
4. Twitter/X: @sevaustinov (less active currently)