AI for Founders with Ryan Estes

Kevin Smith, founder of Snipd and an AI enthusiast from Zurich, dives into the challenges of learning from podcasts. He highlights how Swiss culture's precision shapes AI product innovation and contrasts European versus US entrepreneurial mindsets. Kevin explains why 74% of listeners use podcasts for learning and shares the unique snip features of Snipd, enabling users to save insights hands-free. He envisions a future of AI-driven audio experiences that enhance discoverability and personalized learning.

Today’s episode starts with a simple but brutal truth:Vibe coding breaks the moment your idea gets bigger than “make the button blue.”Every founder knows this moment — when you’ve stretched Lovable, Cursor, or Claude Code as far as your vibes can take you… and suddenly the whole thing collapses under unclear prompts, messy code, and your total inability to explain what you want in the first place.Well, today’s guest built the fix.I’m talking with Tyler Wells, co-founder of BrainGrid.ai, the platform powering over 2,000 AI builders and 10,000+ shipped features by turning messy human ideas into precise, AI-ready specs, tasks, and prompts.If you’ve ever wondered how non-technical founders are suddenly shipping multi-tenant SaaS apps, or how senior engineers are spinning up six agents at once without imploding a repo, this is your episode.We get into:how BrainGrid builds the missing planning layer of AI developmentwhy your prompts suck and how to fix themhow founders with zero engineering background are shipping real productsand the future of “anyone with an idea can actually build it” softwareThis episode is for vibe coders, indie hackers, AI-native SaaS founders, and anyone who has ever thought:“Wait… can I seriously build this myself?”Spoiler: yes. And Tyler shows you how.https://www.braingrid.ai/https://www.linkedin.com/in/tylerswells/https://x.com/tylerwells__https://aiforfounders.co/ https://ambient.us⁠⁠https://codestory.co⁠https://warmstart.ai ⁠⁠https://kitcaster.com/application ⁠⁠https://ryanestes.info⁠

Today’s episode starts with a problem almost every founder fears…What happens when the system you're trying to disrupt is so big, so regulated, and so politically volatile… that one election can flip your entire business model overnight?That’s the world my guest lives in — and somehow thrives in.I’m talking to Eugene Sayan, founder and CEO of Softheon, a 25-year-old startup that processes $20 billion in premiums, powers 30 million enrollments, and delivers affordable healthcare access to 10 million Americans — all while building his own AI infrastructure using agentic systems with zero hallucination tolerance.If you’re a founder, operator, or AI-obsessed builder who wants to understand how to scale inside complexity, leverage AI responsibly, and build a company that can survive political headwinds, economic shocks, and massive technical stakes — this conversation is for you.You're going to learn:• How Softheon uses agentic AI + human-in-the-loop workflows to reach 99.99999% accuracy.• Why designing for a problem 10 years in the future is their secret weapon.• How Eugene bootstrapped a healthcare giant by thinking like an outsider — and an immigrant with something to prove.This episode is high-energy, full of insight, and packed with big numbers. Let’s dive in.https://softheon.comhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/eugenesayan/__https://aiforfounders.co/ https://ambient.us⁠⁠https://codestory.co⁠https://warmstart.ai ⁠⁠https://kitcaster.com/application ⁠⁠https://ryanestes.info⁠

Welcome to AI for Founders, I'm Ryan Estes.Today’s episode starts with a problem every founder knows too well:You finally get a user into your product… and then watch them get completely lost.They bounce. They churn. Or they email support with the dreaded:“Hey uh… how do I actually use this?”That onboarding black hole costs SaaS companies billions — and Alex and Andy from Quarterzip.ai say it’s time to kill “activation debt” forever.These two founders sold their last AI company, immediately spun into their next one, and created an entirely new onboarding modality: a real-time AI voice agent that sees your screen, talks to you, guides your steps, and can literally move your cursor for you.They’ve onboarded users across entire product ecosystems without a single line of engineering integration — and booked 250 demos in 48 hours at launch.Today we dig into:The origin story behind QuarterzipWhy onboarding is the hidden growth lever no one talks aboutHow AI design is shifting from textboxes to vision-driven, voice-guided workflowsRemote co-founding across SF and AustraliaAnd what comes after the chatbot eraIf you’re a founder building AI, building with AI, or scaling a product with too many features and too few hands — this episode is for you.https://quarterzip.aihttps://www.linkedin.com/in/alexander-valente-829989100/https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewpankevicius/__https://aiforfounders.co/ https://ambient.us⁠⁠https://codestory.co⁠https://warmstart.ai ⁠⁠https://kitcaster.com/application ⁠⁠https://ryanestes.info⁠

Welcome to AI for Founders, I'm Ryan Estes.Most of us were never really taught how money works—we were taught how to earn it, maybe how to spend it, but never how to build it. Now imagine the largest wealth transfer in human history—somewhere between $60 trillion and $90 trillion—is happening right now… and most of the inheritors don’t know what a limited partnership is. That’s the problem my guest today, CJ Follini, is trying to solve.CJ is the founder of NOYACK, a “learn-plan-invest” ecosystem using AI agents to teach financial literacy and democratize access to alternative assets like real estate, fine art, and venture capital. He’s managed billions for ultra-wealthy families, built an AI called NOYACK.ai to help the next generation DIY their wealth, and—get this—his family once held a $50 million fine-art portfolio before Masterworks existed.In this episode, you’ll learn how CJ turned his father’s medical crisis into a 35-year wealth-management career, why he believes the future belongs to financial generalists, and how AI agents will completely disrupt wealth management. If you’re a founder, investor, or just someone who wants to finally feel confident about your money, this one’s for you.Three reasons to sign up for the AI for Founders newsletter at aiforfounders.co:You’ll get the smartest AI startup insights you can actually use.You’ll never miss the playbooks my guests only share off-air.You’ll look dangerously well-informed at your next investor meeting.If you enjoy this episode, leave a review—tell us what your AI agent would say about it.https://wearenoyack.comhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/cjfollini/__https://ambient.us⁠⁠https://codestory.co⁠https://warmstart.ai ⁠⁠https://kitcaster.com/application ⁠⁠https://ryanestes.info⁠

Welcome to AI for Founders, I'm Ryan Estes.Today’s episode starts with a problem every founder secretly wrestles with: the future is moving faster than your product roadmap. Models change monthly, competitors ship weekly, and half the AI space seems to be guessing their strategy on the fly. But what if prediction wasn’t a parlor trick… but a real capability? And what if the companies who master it don’t just survive the AI boom — they run the table?That’s exactly where we’re going today with Ben Turtel, founder of Lightning Rod AI, a company beating frontier models at forecasting the real world — using messy data, no humans in the loop, and a training method inspired by how humans actually learn.If you’re a founder, CEO, builder, or operator trying to understand:Where the puck is going in AIHow to build a defendable product when software is collapsing to zeroWhat predictive AI means for your roadmap, your team, and the way you make decisions…this conversation is built for you.By the end of this episode, you’ll see the future of AI through a totally new lens — and you may walk away with the most important strategic insight for the next five years.https://aiforfounders.co/https://lightningrod.aihttps://maps.orghttps://www.thefire.orghttps://twitter.com/BTurtel__https://ambient.us⁠⁠https://codestory.co⁠https://warmstart.ai ⁠⁠https://kitcaster.com/application ⁠⁠https://ryanestes.info⁠

Welcome to AI for Founders, I'm Ryan Estes.If you’re building something in AI and you haven’t checked the patent landscape, there’s a non-zero chance someone you’ve never met already owns the rights to your “million dollar” idea.And one day, right when you hit real traction, they show up with a lawsuit instead of a term sheet.On today’s episode of AI for Founders, I’m talking with Ophir Kra-Oz, co-founder of SenseIP, an AI-powered patent and IP platform that turns the slow, expensive, attorney-only patent process into a fast, founder-friendly validation step you can run on day zero.We get into how patents actually work in an AI world that moves faster than the legal system, when you should protect your IP, why provisionals are criminally underused, how AI agents can make your ideas better and more defensible, and how to avoid having your startup killed by a piece of paper you ignored.If you’re a founder, operator, product leader, or engineer with too many ideas and not enough time, this conversation will plug a huge hole in your validation stack and might save you years of pain later.https://senseip.aihttps://www.linkedin.com/in/ophirk1https://aiforfounders.co/__See our friends:https://ambient.us⁠⁠https://codestory.co⁠https://warmstart.ai ⁠⁠https://kitcaster.com/application ⁠⁠https://ryanestes.info⁠

Welcome back to AI for Founders, I'm Ryan Estes. What happens when your most reliable teammate isn’t an app… it’s a voice that calls you at exactly the right moment? Today we’re meeting the founders of Commitify, an AI accountability coach with personalities—Life Coach, Zen Master, Slay Bestie, Hype Beast, Drill Sergeant, and CEO—that literally ring your phone to snap you back into flow. The tension: real friends have boundaries and bias, therapists have calendars and copays, and apps are drowned in notifications. Commitify bets the future is UI-less voice with long-term memory that feels like a friend and works like a coach.In this episode, you’ll learn why they chose phone calls over screens, how they design agent personas that motivate without being cringey, what “memory” should and shouldn’t remember, the wild origin story (a 100-hour hackathon sprint), pricing by calls per week, and how they’re hunting for a true ICP before scaling. This one’s for founders, builders, and product people who want big retention with small surfaces—and anyone exploring AI that actually changes behavior, not just creates content. Let’s get into it.__https://www.commitify.mehttps://www.linkedin.com/in/mehdi-greefhorsthttps://ambient.ushttps://codestory.co/https://warmstart.ai https://kitcaster.com/application https://ryanestes.info

Welcome back to AI for Founders, I'm Ryan Estes.Today’s episode starts with a tension every founder feels but rarely admits:What do you do when the talent you need doesn’t exist in your own backyard - but exists in abundance halfway across the world?My guest, Nico Bivero, has spent 22 years in Asia and 15 years in the Philippines building Penbrothers—one of the original offshore-team powerhouses that helped startups scale before “offshoring” became a buzzword. His company has supported 1,500 employees, partnered with 90+ global startups, and sits at the center of a massive shift in how founders build teams in the age of AI.In this conversation, you’re going to learn how founders should think about global talent, why Filipinos consistently outperform expectations, what roles are perfect to offshore, and what roles you should never outsource. You’ll also learn how AI, culture, and human psychology collide when you build teams across continents.If you’re a founder, operator, or anyone building with AI who wants to scale with precision—not chaos—this one is for you.__Please check out our friends at: https://ambient.ushttps://codestory.co/https://warmstart.ai https://kitcaster.com/application https://ryanestes.info

David Carmell, founder of DataRocket, transforms legacy data into clean, AI-ready datasets. He delves into the staggering $1.5 trillion problem that hinders enterprise AI adoption, discussing the seamless data onboarding process and the importance of automated cleanup. Carmell highlights the necessity of proving data cleanliness for successful AI outcomes and offers insights on selling the need for data modernization to cautious executives. With innovative pricing that shares savings, his approach empowers businesses to unlock AI's full potential.