#383 - How Joshua Summers turned a banking crisis into an AI workforce for credit

This episode is for founders stuck building features nobody asked for—who want to discover what customers actually need.

Joshua Summers, CEO of EnFi, took a different path. After helping dozens of startups move their cash during the Silicon Valley Bank collapse, he discovered the real problem wasn't deposits or covenants—it was human capacity to assess risk. While others rushed to capitalize on the crisis, he spent months investigating what actually broke.

And this inspired me to invite Joshua to my podcast. We explore how building from crisis reveals opportunities others miss. Joshua shares hard-earned wisdom about why founder-led sales beats hiring early, what happens when you achieve greater-than-human accuracy, and why building a culture where employees jump at the chance to work with you again matters more than your product. You'll discover why taking more capital early can save your company—even if it means more dilution.

We also zoom in on two of the 10 traits that define remarkable software companies:

• Remarkable software companies focus on the essence
• Remarkable software companies create something valuable and desirable

Joshua's story is proof that the best insights come when you're not trying to sell anything.

Here's one of Joshua's quotes that captures his approach to building companies:

“Culture itself is an organism. It lives, it breathes, and it is impacted positively or negatively by every single thing around it. You can't design a culture. You can't say here's what our company will feel like, not look like, but feel like as an employee, it's impossible, but you can feed a culture with all the good things that hopefully help it to evolve like an organism."

By listening to this episode, you'll learn:

• Why building in the open beats perfectionism
• How 14 people can operate like a company of 150
• When discovering the essence changes everything
• What makes employees want to work with you (again)

For more information about the guest from this week:

Guest: Joshua Summers, CEO of EnFi

Website: www.enfi.ai