AI for Founders with Ryan Estes

Welcome back to AI for Founders, I am Ryan EstesThere’s a mountain every company is quietly climbing — not of code or customers, but of unstructured data.Billions of pages. Decades of contracts, PDFs, and reports trapped in digital silos no human has time to read. It’s where trillions of dollars in untapped insight are hiding — and where most AI systems still fail.Today, we meet the man building the rope line up that mountain.Mehul Shah, former AWS engineer behind OpenSearch and Glue, now leads Aryn.ai — a company on a mission to help enterprises turn the 90 percent of their data they can’t analyze into an engine of intelligence.If you’re a founder, data leader, or investor wondering where the real AI gold rush begins — not in flashy demos, but in the hard, unseen work of structuring the world’s chaos — this episode is for you.You’ll learn why most enterprise AI deployments fail, what “human-in-the-loop” really means, and how the next wave of productivity won’t come from chatbots — but from invisible AI that simply makes work work.So grab your coffee, open your mind, and get ready to rethink what data really is.Here we go.https://www.aryn.aihttps://www.linkedin.com/in/mehulashahhttps://x.com/mehulashahhttps://www.shfb.org__Please check out our friends at: https://ambient.us https://codestory.cohttps://warmstart.ai https://kitcaster.com/application

Welcome to AI for Founders I am Ryan Estes.You are probably feeling the whiplash right now. Your office lease was signed in 2018 for 10 years, your team is half remote, your desks cost $15–40k a year, and your people are either lonely at home or resentful about being dragged back to the office.Today I am talking with someone who went through the fire on this. Dan Bladen is the founder of Kadence, that is Kadence with a K, the workplace operations platform behind hundreds of companies, Fortune 50s, ten thousand teams, and tens of millions of dollars raised after a brutal pivot from dead in the water hardware to must-have SaaS.In this conversation, you will learn how to turn empty and expensive offices into a real advantage, how to design a hybrid cadence that actually improves mentorship and family life, why sales and engineering need to share the same oxygen sometimes, and what founder-led marketing does for enterprise deals.If you are a founder, operator, head of workplace, real estate leader, or just a sales dog wondering where your team should actually sit, this episode is for you.Alright, let us get into it with Dan from Kadence.__https://kadence.co/https://x.com/danbladenhttps://stopthetraffik.org/https://ambient.us - Your AI Chief of Staff that preps you for every meeting, keeps your team accountable & aligned, and helps you stay on top of key initiatives.https://codestory.co/?utm_source=newsletterorpodcast&utm_medium=emailorepisode&utm_id=aiforfounders - A podcast featuring founders, tech leaders, CTO's, CEO's, and software architects, reflecting on their human story in creating world changing, disruptive digital products.https://warmstart.ai - Build lasting business relationships and stay connected with your network, effortlessly.https://kitcaster.com/application - Let us schedule your podcast interviews

There’s a problem simmering under the surface of the AI boom that nobody wants to say out loud:The tech is evolving faster than founders can keep up — and the tools we rely on keep regressing back to kindergarten.One month Perplexity is brilliant, the next it’s recommending Arby's.One day GPT is your super-genius co-pilot, the next you’re bottle-feeding it simple math.And just when you think you finally know which LLM to trust, Gemini 3 launches and resets the entire scoreboard.Today’s guest has lived inside that chaos — and built a business on top of the turbulence.I’m talking to Brennan Pothetes, the CEO of Infinity Constellation, the world’s first AI holding company that’s already deployed 10+ companies, raised $17 million, and pushed multiple ventures past $1M ARR in their first year — often with teams of fewer than five people.In this episode, you’ll learn:Why the tech moat is collapsing — and what replaces itThe new math of “good headcount” vs “bad headcount”How to sell outcomes instead of toolsWhy founder-led distribution is more powerful than everAnd what a true AI-first services business actually looks like in the wildThis conversation is for founders building right now — especially if you’re wondering how to keep your edge while AI moves faster than your ability to form an opinion about it.Let’s get into it.Please check out our friends at: https://www.infinityconstellation.comhttps://www.notanotherpodcast.co/https://www.linkedin.com/in/brennanpotheteshttps://ambient.us https://codestory.cohttps://warmstart.ai https://kitcaster.com/application

In this episode of AI for Founders, Ryan Estes sits down with Jasson Casey, CEO of Beyond Identity, and Josh from Brand Hospitality Group to unpack what happens when AI can convincingly impersonate humans and your passwords are the weakest link in the system. They break down how device-bound, hardware-backed identity can stop AI-enabled adversaries, eliminate most password-based attacks, and give your AI agents their own cryptographic identity. If you are building AI products, securing a growing team, or just tired of MFA fatigue, this conversation shows you how to protect your business while still shipping fast.You will hear how Beyond Identity uses passkeys, cryptographic keys, and device posture to create unphishable authentication, and how a hospitality operator with non-technical frontline workers is actually deploying it in the real world. The episode also explores agentic AI, why detection-only tools are a losing arms race, and why data provenance, not just content detection, will define the next decade of cybersecurity.What you will learnHow AI-enabled adversaries mimic victims through cloned voices, synthetic identities, and deepfake.sWhy detecting fake content is an arms race and why provenance and authorization matter moreHow device-bound, hardware-backed identity works in practice, using examples like Apple PayHow passkeys and local hardware enclaves eliminate credential movement, the root of most breachesHow to give AI agents their own identity, permissions and audit trail so you can prove who was actingHow a hotel group uses passkeys to protect line-level staff and reduce MFA friction across brandsWhy founders should demand modern identity support (SSO, passkeys) from every new vendor they adoptAround 80 percent of security incidents involve stolen or misused credentials, not exotic zero daysCredentials that never move and never live in general memory cannot be phished, replayed or leaked in logsAI does not always create new vulnerabilities; it massively scales the impact of the ones you already haveTreat AI agents like short-lived employees, give them identity, scope, permissions, and an auditable trailIdentity is becoming the real perimeter, and data provenance will be critical as sensors and implants get closer to the bodyFor many organizations, the biggest security win is replacing passwords and fragile MFA flows with hardware-backed passkeysResources mentionedBeyond Identity: https://www.beyondidentity.comStonewood Farm and First Harvest Food Pantry: https://stonewoodny.org/first-harvest-food-pantryAmerica’s VetDogs: https://www.vetdogs.orgSafe House Project: https://www.safehouseproject.orgOnWatch trafficking detection training: https://www.safehouseproject.org/onwatchEpisode Sponsorsambient.us Your AI Chief of Staff that preps you for every meeting, keeps your team accountable and aligned, and helps you stay on top of key initiatives. codestory.co A podcast featuring founders, tech leaders, CTOs, CEOs and software architects, reflecting on their human story in creating world changing, disruptive digital products. warmstart.ai Build lasting business relationships and stay connected with your network, effortlessly. kitcaster.com/application Let us schedule your podcast interviews on the world’s top podcasts. More from AI for Foundersaiforfounders.coryanestes.info

Greg Brogger of Collective LiquidityGuest: Greg Brogger, Founder and CEO of Collective LiquidityShow: AI for Founders with Ryan EstesEpisode OverviewWhat do you do when most of your net worth is tied up in one late-stage startup that might never exit?In this episode, Ryan talks with serial fintech founder Greg Brogger about how Collective Liquidity isbuilding an exchange fund designed specifically for private company shareholders. They break down the mathbehind diversification, the risks of concentrated startup equity, and why a tax-efficient liquidity strategyis becoming essential for founders and employees in the modern venture ecosystem.This conversation is for founders, executives, and early employees at venture-backed companies who want toturn pre IPO shares into long-term wealth without waiting a decade or handing half to taxes.Key TakeawaysThe private unicorn market is massive Roughly 4 trillion dollars in value is locked up in late stage private companies, yet only a small percentage of that trades in secondary markets each year.Concentrated equity is far riskier than most employees realizeGreg’s team studied every US Series C round from 2010 to 2015. Only about 38 percent of those companies had created value for employee shareholders ten years later, while a diversified portfolio across the same cohort would have produced roughly a 5x return.What Collective Liquidity doesEmployees and founders of eligible late stage, venture backed companies exchange a portion of their company stock for LP interests in a diversified exchange fund. The structure is designed to be tax free for many shareholders and becomes a foundation for diversification, liquidity lines and advanced wealth planning.Resources and LinksCollective Liquidity: https://www.collectiveliquidity.comAI for Founders: https://aiforfounders.coRyan Estes: https://ryanestes.infoEpisode Sponsorsambient.us – Your AI Chief of Staff that preps you for every meeting, keeps your team accountable and aligned, and helps you stay on top of key initiatives.Code Story – A podcast featuring founders, tech leaders, CTOs, CEOs and software architects, reflecting on their human story in creating world changing, disruptive digital products.warmstart.ai – Build lasting business relationships and stay connected with your network, effortlessly.kitcaster.com/application – Let us schedule your podcast interviews on the world’s top podcasts.More from AI for Foundershttps://aiforfounders.cohttps://ryanestes.info

Friday night in a busy restaurant, the phones never stop ringing and up to 40 percent of calls never get answered. Loman AI turns that chaos into captured revenue.In this episode, Christian Wiens breaks down how Loman AI built a fully conversational voice AI agent that answers every call, takes orders, handles reservations, and plugs directly into restaurant POS systems. No phone trees, no press one for this, just natural conversation and sub 500 millisecond response times.Christian shares how his team went from an idea in early 2024 to a funded, fast growing restaurant AI platform with around 1,000 paying locations, all while relying heavily on inbound demand, SEO, and customer referrals.This episode is for founders building AI products, B2B SaaS teams selling into SMB and mid-market, and anyone interested in restaurant technology, phone automation, and high-intent GTM strategies.https://ambient.us: Your AI Chief of Staff that preps you for every meeting, keeps your team accountable and aligned, and helps you stay on top of key initiatives.https://codestory.co/?utm_source=newsletterorpodcast&utm_medium=emailorepisode&utm_id=aiforfounders: A podcast featuring founders, tech leaders, CTOs, CEOs, and software architects, reflecting on their human story in creating world changing, disruptive digital products.https://warmstart.ai: Build lasting business relationships and stay connected with your network, effortlessly.https://kitcaster.com/application: Let us schedule your podcast interviews on the world’s top podcasts.More from AI for Founders: https://aiforfounders.coMore from Ryan Estes: https://ryanestes.info

Guest: Anish Sebastian, CEO & Co-Founder, BabyscriptsHost: Ryan EstesEpisode SummaryMaternal mortality is rising in the U.S. while access to care lags. Anish Sebastian explains how Babyscripts uses AI, remote patient monitoring, and data-driven care plans to connect OB providers with patients between visits, cut unnecessary appointments, and surface high-risk events earlier. We dig into clinical validation, cultural and regulatory friction, value-based care incentives, and what an AI-assisted “team of experts” model means for the future of pregnancy care.Who This Is ForFounders and product leaders in digital healthClinicians exploring virtual careInvestors focused on outcomes and costOperators building AI into regulated workflowsKey TakeawaysMaternal health crisis in the U.S.: access and incentives drive outcomesPregnancy RPM: blood pressure, weight, glucose, symptoms, SDOH, mood screensTwo adoption waves: telemedicine/remote care → AI for documentation and predictionB2B2C: sell to providers, prescribe to patients; workflow-first designValidation before scale: studies, workflow fit, and minimizing liability signal fatigueValue-based care rewards prevention and continuous monitoringAI’s first impact: admin automation (notes, coding, billing), then predictive riskEngagement model: task-oriented app—optimize for doing, not scrollingFuture: AI agents triage continuous data, escalate to humans, close the loopNorth star: earlier risk detection, fewer adverse events, more patient agencyFrameworksAdoption WavesTelemedicine + Remote Monitoring (COVID acceleration)AI/LLMs for documentation → predictive risk → agentic careCare Delivery LoopCollect → Detect → Notify → InterveneEngagement DesignWeekly education, specific tasks, quick biometricsShort sessions, provider-connected feedbackIncentive AlignmentFee-for-service vs. value-based careFuture ModelTeam of experts on demand + AI triage agentsResourcesBabyscriptsBabyscripts — AboutMarch of DimesEpisode ambient.us — Your AI Chief of Staff that preps you for every meeting, keeps your team accountable & aligned, and helps you stay on top of key initiatives.codestory.co — A podcast featuring founders, tech leaders, CTO's, CEO's, and software architects, reflecting on their human story in creating world changing, disruptive digital products.warmstart.ai — Build lasting business relationships and stay connected with your network, effortlessly.kitcaster.com/application — Let us schedule your podcast interviews on the world’s top podcasts.More from us: aiforfounders.co | ryanestes.info

Guest: Ricardo Vice Santos, CEO and co-founder of DreamStories.aiTopic: Agentic content studio, personalized children’s books, character-consistent AI imagery, subscriber-style publishing economicsEpisode OverviewHow DreamStories.ai turns kids into the hero of their own beautifully illustrated adventure. Ricardo explains the “agentic content studio” model, why he started with physical books, how he achieves character consistency at scale, and the unit economics behind paid acquisition and repeat purchase behavior.Time-Saving HighlightsDreamStories.ai basics: Upload photos → AI creates a consistent main character → choose a template → get a printed bookWhy books first: proven category, premium willingness to pay, repeatable nightly ritual, durable margins“Intimacy at scale”: personalization that feels one-of-one, delivered with production reliabilityTeam and traction: lean engineering-heavy team, strong repeat purchase behavior, moving toward broader creative toolsMarket approach: US-first, added non-Latin scripts to expand globallyPaid growth reality: Facebook as the steady workhorse, ROAS math, and the path from novelty to serviceKey Takeaways (Founder-Focused)Personalization moat: Character consistency is hard; solving it is a defensible advantageService over one-off product: Episodic books drive retention and higher LTVPhysical-first strategy: Consumers expect digital to be free; physical goods sustain CAC and marginsDistribution truth: Paid acquisition is an auction—win by superior LTV and repeat behaviorTaste matters: Make the creation flow enjoyable for parents, not just the final artifact for kidsRicardo’s Playbooks and Frameworks1) Agentic Content Studio FrameworkInput: photos + light preferencesOrchestration: model mix (open-source + proprietary) for character consistencyOutput: stylized, on-brand illustrations across pagesFeedback: human-in-the-loop edits and text controlScale: “Infinite content” goal with guardrails2) Intimacy-at-Scale LoopPersonal artifact → nightly family ritual → social proof at school and with relatives → referrals and repeat gifts → episodic upsell3) Retention Through EpisodesSeries structure rather than one-off noveltyAge-aware prompts and evolving language difficultySeasonal and milestone triggers (birthdays, holidays, grade changes)4) Paid Media Unit EconomicsExpect CAC ≈ AOV at the startUnlock winning bids via higher LTV (repeat, bundles, subscriptions)Use episodic content to justify continuous repurchase5) Brand-Safe Personalization GuardrailsRestrict IP where necessaryStyle and conduct policies for cameos and co-charactersHuman review points for edge casesResources and LinksDreamStories.ai: https://dreamstories.aiRicardo Vice Santos on LinkedIn: search LinkedIn for “Ricardo Vice Santos”The NeverEnding Story (reference)Choose Your Own Adventure series (reference)WILD Foundation: https://wild.orgEpisode Sponsorsambient.us — Your AI Chief of Staff that preps you for every meeting, keeps your team accountable & aligned, and helps you stay on top of key initiatives.codestory.co — A podcast featuring founders, tech leaders, CTOs, CEOs, and software architects, reflecting on their human story in creating world changing, disruptive digital products.warmstart.ai — Build lasting business relationships and stay connected with your network, effortlessly.kitcaster.com/application — Let us schedule your podcast interviews on the world’s top podcasts.More from the HostNewsletter: https://aiforfounders.coRyan: https://ryanestes.info

AI for Founders — Danny Kirk (ReddiReach) Show Notes Episode summary Reddit has become a prime source for AI training data and AI search results. Founder Danny Kirk explains how ReddiReach helps 7–10 figure brands win inside AI search by using Reddit the right way. We break down why comments beat posts, how AI search is changing SEO, and what brands should do now to capture demand from LLM recommendations. Who this is for Founders, CMOs, growth leaders, e-commerce operators, and SEO pros who want practical playbooks for AI search, Reddit marketing, and LLM-driven discovery. What you’ll learn How Reddit influences LLM answers and “AI search” visibility Why comment-first strategies outperform posts and ads Brand-safety and compliance on subreddit rules Timelines and expectations for compounding results Pricing and capacity realities for a lean, profitable agency The bear case and risk controls for Reddit-dependence How LLM Buy Now flows and Shopify could change conversion paths Key takeaways AI search is redefining classic SEO for many queries. Comments are the signal LLMs rely on; quality compounds. Play the long game; this era resembles early SEO. Each subreddit’s rules determine removal or reach. Organic first; posts and ads have different risk/return. Small expert teams can outperform with tight systems. Hedge platform risk; diversify discovery sources. Frameworks discussed Reddit Marketing Buckets: Ads, AMAs, Posts, Comments Comment-First Operating Rules: genuine, helpful, accurate, truthful; help first, brand second; evergreen utility AI Search Strategy Stack: credible Reddit presence → identify LLM-cited queries → high-quality comments → monitor AI search intel Brand-Safety Protocol: platform + subreddit rules, native tone, account warm-up and karma Long-Term Compounding: durable comment assets over volume Notable numbers ~47 brands served by a ~5-person team ~1 high-quality comment/day (~20 per month) Starting around $1,500–$2,000/month 500+ companies helped across the founder’s career Resources and links ReddiReach AI Search Intel (Peekaboo) Danny Kirk (LinkedIn) Reddit Ryan Estes AI for Founders Episode Sponsors ambient.us — Your AI Chief of Staff that preps you for every meeting, keeps your team accountable & aligned, and helps you stay on top of key initiatives. codestory.co — A podcast featuring founders, tech leaders, CTOs, CEOs, and software architects reflecting on their human story in creating world-changing, disruptive digital products. warmstart.ai — Build lasting business relationships and stay connected with your network, effortlessly. kitcaster.com/application — Let us schedule your podcast interviews on the world’s top podcasts. More from the host AI for Founders ryanestes.info

Guest: Keren Fanan, Co-Founder & CEO, MyOp.devTopic: Plugging AI-generated UI into production without breaking your core appEpisode overviewAI can now generate front ends and UX logic in minutes, but most teams still cannot ship that code safely. Keren explains how MyOp’s pluggable layer lets non-developers ship UI in isolation while engineering protects the core, enabling faster experiments, A/B tests, and personalization in live apps.What you will learnHow to connect AI-generated components to real products without redeploysThe separation-of-responsibilities model for product, design, and engineeringHow to run safe experiments, staged rollouts, and A/B tests in productionWhy front-end roles are changing and how non-developers can ship codeHow to stand up design-partner programs and early customer workshopsSeed-stage tactics: pricing, usage metrics, and adoption inside mature orgsKey takeawaysPluggable isolation: MyOp keeps AI-generated UI and front-end logic isolated from core code so the product remains stable and secure while experiments move fast.Non-dev empowerment: Product managers, designers, and growth teams can ship user-facing components safely; engineering owns core logic, data, and integrations.Faster learning loops: Teams can ship, segment, and roll out UI changes to real users, then iterate based on measurable results.Change management is the work: Success requires explicit ownership, QA gates, and trust building between product and engineering.Pricing follows value: Usage-based subscription aligns cost to shipped components and measurable outcomes.Career shift: A large portion of traditional front-end work moves to “citizen developers,” pushing engineers deeper into core systems or toward product.Women in AI leadership: Action steps to widen participation and turn AI fluency into new leadership paths.Frameworks and operating modelsMyOp ArchitectureOpen source SDK inside the host app to define a safe “contract” to the coreManagement hub for pasting AI-generated code, QA, segmentation, A/B tests, version history, and gradual rolloutsSeparation of ResponsibilitiesEngineering: core domain logic, data models, integrations, stability, securityProduct/Design/Growth: UI components, micro-interactions, experiments, and personalization via AI toolsExperiment-to-Production PipelineGenerate component with AI tool of choicePlug into MyOp management hubQA segment → beta segment → broader rolloutMeasure, iterate, and sync to Git as neededAdoption PlaybookLead with live demos built by non-developersRun hands-on internal workshops to teach “vibe coding” for real app componentsUse design partners to validate value and prove speed-to-impactPricing and MetricsUsage-based subscription tied to shipped components and real outcomesFast statsFounded: 2024Team size: ~10Capital raised: ~$2M seedHQ: Tel Aviv, operating globallyFocus: UI/UX in production, experiments, segmentation, A/B testing, and rolloutsResources mentionedMyOp.dev: https://myop.devKeren on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.comWomen in Tech Israel: https://www.women-in-tech.orgEpisode Sponsorsambient.us - Your AI Chief of Staff that preps you for every meeting, keeps your team accountable & aligned, and helps you stay on top of key initiatives.codestory.co - A podcast featuring founders, tech leaders, CTO's, CEO's, and software architects, reflecting on their human story in creating world changing, disruptive digital products.warmstart.ai - Build lasting business relationships and stay connected with your network, effortlessly.kitcaster.com/application - Let us schedule your podcast interviews on the world’s top podcasts.More from AI for Founders: https://aiforfounders.coAbout Ryan: https://ryanestes.info