AI Can't Explain What It Did with Scott Francis Welcome back to Founder Mode! In this episode, we sat down with Scott Francis, founder of BP3 and longtime operator, consultant, and builder. Scott spent nearly two decades helping companies improve business processes through multiple technology cycles, including mobile, cloud, automation, and now AI. We talked about why process matters more than technology, how AI changes software development, what founders get wrong about hiring, and why some...
13 days ago • 3 min read
How To Be Incorruptible with Eric Ries Welcome back to Founder Mode! In this episode, we sat down with Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup and his new book, The Startup Way. But this conversation was different. It was not about finding product market fit. It was about what happens after. We talked about mission drift, governance, trust, and why some companies slowly lose the thing that made them special in the first place. One line from Eric stuck with me immediately: “The more successful...
21 days ago • 3 min read
Why AI Loves Reddit Most with Brent Csutoras Welcome back to Founder Mode! In this episode, I sat down with Brent Csutoras, who has spent nearly two decades inside Reddit and other online communities. He has seen what works, what fails fast, and what brands keep getting wrong. The big idea was simple. If you want to trust online, stop acting like a billboard. Start acting like a real person inside a real community. That hit home for me. I also kept coming back to a point I made in the...
28 days ago • 3 min read
Hire Attitude, Not Experience with Jose Li Welcome back to Founder Mode! In this episode, we sat down with Jose Li, founder of 71 Pounds. He built a business around something most companies completely ignore: shipping refunds. At first, it sounds simple. If FedEx or UPS delivers a package late, you get your money back. Except almost nobody actually claims it. Jose spent years inside FedEx before realizing there was a huge opportunity hiding in plain sight. Companies were leaving billions of...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
Sleep, Listen, Say No One of my companies, Search Engine Journal, runs webinars for customers that generate millions in revenue. We decided to open up that playbook. We’re launching a 4-week live cohort starting next week to teach how to actually make webinars work. Not theory. You build it live. By the end, you’ll have: Your webinar Landing page Email sequence Follow-up system All done. If you’re a Founder Mode subscriber, I want to give you 50% off. Use code: FOUNDER50 Spots are limited,...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
The Talent Litmus Test of the AI Era Welcome back to Founder Mode! I’ve changed my mind on something pretty fundamental. AI is no longer optional. For a long time, I thought of it as a skill. Something nice to have. Something you could layer on top of a strong team. Now I see it differently. If someone is not using AI, they are not operating at the level the business needs. And as a founder, that forces a hard decision. The Gap Is Too Big to Ignore At Pretty Good AI, we see the output gap...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
Fire Your Worst Customers Welcome back to Founder Mode! In this episode, Jason and I went deep on something that most founders are feeling right now but not fully understanding yet. AI isn’t just getting better. It’s getting constrained. Computing is limited. Access is being controlled. And the companies building the best models are starting to choose who gets in. We talked about Anthropic, token economics, enterprise adoption, and what founders should actually do about it. This one is less...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
The 10X Effort vs. 2X Growth Trap Welcome back to Founder Mode! Lately, I’ve been thinking about something that feels backwards at first. Growing 10X is often easier than growing 2X. There's a popular book by the same name. I didn’t believe that for a long time. It sounds like something you read in a book and ignore. But once I saw it inside Pretty Good AI, it started to click. When you aim for small growth, you protect the system you already have. When you aim for massive growth, you are...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
AI as a Financial Co-Pilot with Shain Noor Welcome back to Founder Mode! In this episode, we sat down with Shain Noor, founder of Silvia. He is building what he calls a personal CFO powered by AI. Not another dashboard. Not another budgeting tool. Something that actually helps you think. We talked about why most finance tools fall short, how AI changes decision-making, and what it takes to build trust when real money is involved. This one felt different. Let’s get into it. 1. Finance Tools...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read