Episode 13 - Building AI Before It Was Cool with Dennis Mortensen In this episode of Founder Mode, Jason and I talked to Dennis Mortensen. He’s an entrepreneur who built AI solutions long before they were in the spotlight. Dennis shared his journey of creating AI companies, such as x.ai. He made an AI scheduling assistant at x.ai long before today’s language models showed up. Dennis talked about how hard it was to build an AI dataset from nothing. His team manually labeled millions of emails....
4 days ago • 1 min read
Survive and Thrive: How to Overcome the Midlife Squeeze Hey there! Welcome back to Founder Mode! Today, I want to explore a concept that changed my life: The Leverage Principle. It can help you handle the busy demands of life and business. You’ve probably heard the term "midlife squeeze" before. Ray Dalio, the billionaire investor, calls it a pattern we can expect in life. You’ve worked hard, but as you hit your 40s, things only seem to get more intense. You focus on your career. You also...
5 days ago • 4 min read
Build Scalable Systems: Set Your Business Up for Growth Hey there! Welcome back to Founder Mode! Today, I’m exploring a key part of scaling a business: creating operational systems that can grow with you. Based on my experience, the best systems help growth and keep chaos away. I learned a lot by streamlining operations. This helps avoid bottlenecks and boosts efficiency. As founders, we can get lost in developing products and marketing them. But one area that I believe gets overlooked is the...
10 days ago • 4 min read
Take Control of Your Mail: Simplify, Secure, Save Time Hey there! Welcome back to Founder Mode! This week, I’m here to introduce a simple and handy solution: remote mailboxes. They have made my life easier. Managing physical mail used to be a big hassle for me. I often felt buried in letters, bills, business mail, and packages. As a founder managing many companies, I knew I needed a simpler solution. That’s when I found remote mailboxes. Using services like Earth Class Mail, we can now manage...
12 days ago • 3 min read
The Storytelling Edge: Why Your Founder Narrative Matters More Than Your Pitch Deck Hey there! Welcome back to Founder Mode! Today, I want to look at a key piece of a startups journey: storytelling. Perfectly timed with this weeks podcast. Asa who I met at UCLA when we were both Mech Eng majors working on an EV racer. Asa is a master story teller. Check it out here. Kevin prep'ing the car before a race As founders, we often focus so much on pitch decks, numbers, and business models. But...
17 days ago • 5 min read
Episode 12 - From Hollywood to High-Rises: Making Robots with Asa Hammond In this episode of Founder Mode, Jason and I talked with Asa Hammond. He is a robotics expert. He works on movie sets in Hollywood and at construction sites. Asa said that making robots for movies like Gravity can aid in tough construction jobs. Skills from film can be helpful in real life. He fuses creativity, good design, and tech to produce reliable machines. Robots in Movies vs. Robots on Job Sites Asa started...
19 days ago • 2 min read
The AI Hiring Guide: Finding and Keeping Top Talent in the Automation Age Hey there! Welcome back to Founder Mode! This week, I’m diving into a topic that has shaped my path as a founder—using AI to build stronger teams. I've learned this the hard way. With AI's help, I now make smarter hiring and retention decisions for top talent. And let me tell you, it has made a massive difference in the way I approach team building. Let’s discuss how AI can enhance your hiring process. It helps you find...
19 days ago • 4 min read
Beyond Burnout: Building Sustainable Resilience as a Founder Hey there! Welcome back to Founder Mode! As founders, we often feel like we need to do everything ourselves. We handle many tasks, make choices, and work hard to grow our businesses. But eventually, everything catches up with us. Our energy drops, stress builds up, and burnout starts knocking on the door. I’ve been there. It’s tough, but here’s the good news: burnout isn’t inevitable. It’s preventable. To succeed in business, we...
24 days ago • 4 min read
Startup Culture Isn’t Only Free Snacks: Crafting a High-Performance Team That Endures Hey there! Welcome back to Founder Mode! Today, I want to dive into a topic that has been on my mind a lot lately: startup culture. As founders, we dream of creating great companies. We want teams made up of driven, top performers who work well together. Startup culture is often romanticized. People think of perks like free snacks, ping pong tables, and flexible hours. But if we’re being honest, a successful...
26 days ago • 5 min read