Forget ‘Founder Mode,’ what about Customer Mode?

You might have noticed in your time online that a lot of the services and the websites that you’re using are kind of getting…worse. The good news, though, is that this means that there are different sectors that are ripe for disruption. 

On today’s episode of Equity, Rebecca's joined by Ed Zitron —CEO of EZPR, host of the Better Offline podcast, and author of Why Everything Stopped Working—to dig into why this shift is happening and what it means for startups.

Listen to the full episode to hear the pair discuss:

• Why it’s time to ditch ‘founder mode’ for what Ed calls ‘customer mode’ – a more sustainable, customer-first approach that beats the growth-at-all-costs mentality.
• The opportunities Ed sees for startups in what he sees as a declining market
• The long-term outlook for generative AI companies like OpenAI. (Note: this interview was recorded before the DeepSeek news broke, but don’t worry – Equity will have that update for you later in the week.)

Equity is TechCrunch’s flagship podcast, produced by Theresa Loconsolo, and posts every Wednesday and Friday. 

Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. For the full episode transcript, for those who prefer reading over listening, check out our full archive of episodes here.

Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. We’d also like to thank TechCrunch’s audience development team. Thank you so much for listening, and we'll talk to you next time.

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