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The Engineering Trap: Why Most CTOs Never Become Real Executives
Dec 3, 2025
1h 16m 49s
The $500M GTM System Behind META and McDonald’s Launches
Sep 17, 2025
Unknown duration
Exit Ready vs Exit Trapped: Why Most Founders Get This Wrong
Sep 10, 2025
Unknown duration
How AI Agents Will Revolutionise Work by 2030 — Suman Kanuganti
Sep 3, 2025
Unknown duration
Top Business Exit Planner Reveals Secret Strategies for MAXIMUM Profit — with Marc Adams
Aug 27, 2025
Unknown duration
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| Date | Episode | Topics | Guests | Brands | Places | Keywords | Sponsor | Length | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12/3/25 | ![]() The Engineering Trap: Why Most CTOs Never Become Real Executives✨ | CTO leadershipbusiness strategy+4 | Khalil Dimachkie | Imperial CollegeBlue Light Card | — | CTOengineering trap+7 | — | 1h 16m 49s | |
| 9/17/25 | ![]() The $500M GTM System Behind META and McDonald’s Launches | Stop treating go-to-market like a one-off campaign. Build it like a product with alpha, beta and brutal go/no-go rules so you can ship faster, learn faster, and avoid the “we launched it anyway” disaster.Perfect listen for product, marketing or growth leads in lean startups where launches keep slipping because nobody truly owns the go-to-market, so approvals, handoffs and rework quietly kill momentum.To unpack this, I spoke with Anya Cheng. She wrote a book that breaks down the alpha–beta–launch approach used inside Meta, eBay and Target. She’s also founder and CEO of Taylor, an AI-powered menswear rental and personal styling company, and a former product and go-to-market leader at Facebook, eBay, Target and McDonald’s.Where to find Anya Cheng: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anyacheng/In this episode:Why internal reasons kill launch dates and the lightweight system that removes the chaos.How to use tiny rollouts to learn fast and reduce risk.The big-tech pattern you can copy: test at 0.1%, then scale through 1%, 10%, 20%, 50% when the signal is real.What to measure in beta so data beats opinions before you open the floodgates.How to avoid the classic trap of changing the message mid-flight.Get the links, notes and resources from this episode at masteringtechgrowth.com | — | ||||||
| 9/10/25 | ![]() Exit Ready vs Exit Trapped: Why Most Founders Get This Wrong | Selling your business is where most founders lose their leverage, not win it. This episode shows how to turn your tech company or agency into a sellable asset years before exit so buyers pay up instead of retrading you down at the last minute.Perfect listen if you’re a bootstrapped or lightly funded tech / agency founder who wants real exit options, not burnout, golden handcuffs and a surprise haircut on valuation.To unpack this, I sat down with Jordan Calderon, a two-time exited founder and president of StratDev, one of the top 100 marketing firms in the US. He’s built and sold multiple bootstrapped companies, lived through a painful retrade on his first exit, then engineered a multi-offer, over-ask sale on his second.https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordan-a-calderon/In this episode:The simple “hit-by-a-bus” test Jordan uses to spot founder dependency early and remove it so you don’t get stuck in multi-year earn-out handcuffs.How the M&A process actually works (CIM, LOI, due diligence, retrades) and the brutal $50m → $1.2m horror story that proves why exit readiness is a 1–3 year game, not a 3-month sprint.The three levers buyers care about most: sustainable growth curves, a business that runs without you, and SOPs that can add roughly +1x EBITDA to your valuation almost out of thin air.A dead-simple framework for building SOPs in Google Docs (including the “Starbucks stranger” test) so any new hire—or buyer—can follow your processes like a recipe.How Jordan uses offshore and nearshore teams to charge “US prices, global costs” while improving delivery quality and margins.The pricing and negotiation moves he used to go from being retraded on his first deal to running a competitive process with 11 LOIs, anchoring high, and protecting terms inside the LOI.Get the links, notes and resources from this episode at masteringtechgrowth.com | — | ||||||
| 9/3/25 | ![]() How AI Agents Will Revolutionise Work by 2030 — Suman Kanuganti | You’ve met AI assistants. Now imagine one that knows you. It understands your ideas, your voice, your judgment, and works beside you. In this episode, I sit down with Suman Kanuganti, CEO and Co-Founder of PersonalAI, to explore how AI agents built from your own knowledge are redefining what it means to work and think.Suman explains how AI agents capture organisational knowledge, learn continuously, and operate as role-based teammates instead of generic assistants. We talk about why structured data is no longer a bottleneck. How no-code AI tools accelerate adoption. What it really takes to build private, secure AI systems that scale with your business.We also explore a bigger question. What happens when every professional has a personal AI that mirrors their mind? From collaboration and efficiency to governance and trust, this conversation shows how the next generation of AI agents will reshape work by the end of the decade.If you rate this episode and leave a short comment, I’d love to thank you personally.Join the community at masteringtechgrowth.com and I’ll send you an exclusive growth resource I use with founders every week. | — | ||||||
| 8/27/25 | ![]() Top Business Exit Planner Reveals Secret Strategies for MAXIMUM Profit — with Marc Adams | Marc Adams helps business owners plan their exit the smart way. He is a top business exit planner, M&A expert, and best-selling author. Marc shows founders how to grow their business, sell it, and keep more money. He is backed by £18 billion in family office support. His system helps you find hidden value, grow through acquisition, and avoid big tax bills when you sell.In this episode, Marc answers:→ What is a business exit strategy, and why should you plan it from day one?→ How can business exit planning help you keep more of what you built?→ What is the smartest way to grow through acquisition as a founder?→ How can you buy a business with no money down, even with no experience?→ Why do most business owners lose money in M&A, and how can you avoid it?→ What does a tax free business sale look like, and who qualifies for it?→ How does personal legacy shape your exit plan, and why does it matter?If you’re a founder, business owner, or entrepreneur who wants to grow, sell, or keep more from your exit, this episode is for you.Where to find Marc Adams:→ Website: https://acquisitions4you.com/→ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/1marcadams/Where to find Mike Sirius:→ Website: https://www.mikesirius.com→ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/msirius/In this episode, we cover:00:00 The Journey of a Young Entrepreneur03:10 Understanding Business Valuation and Exit Strategies05:59 The Importance of Planning for Business Sale08:57 Overcoming Personal Challenges and Finding Purpose12:13 Strategies for Doubling Business Value15:12 Navigating Tax Implications in Business Sales18:01 Acquisition Financing and Consulting for Equity20:53 Building Value Without Cash Investment33:56 Turning Points: A Teen's Journey from Trouble to Triumph36:21 Creative Financing: Strategies for Young Entrepreneurs38:33 The Information Game: Knowledge vs. Implementation40:50 Tax Strategies: Navigating Business Structures43:41 Finding the Right Specialists: Building Trust in Business48:15 Setting Goals: The Importance of Vision in Business51:39 Accelerating Growth: Strategies for Rapid Business Expansion01:02:03 Understanding Business Value and Growth Strategies01:04:25 The Importance of Tailored Business Strategies01:06:40 Secret Methods for Doubling Business Value01:07:30 Wealth Protection Post-Sale01:10:01 The Double and Keep It Blueprint01:12:13 Rapid Fire Questions on Business Acquisition01:19:19 Credibility in Zero Down Business Deals01:22:45 Understanding Earn Outs and Acquisition StrategiesFor inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email mike@msirius.com | — | ||||||
| 8/19/25 | ![]() 10x Your Chances of Finding Product-Market Fit with Vibe Coding — with Ali Hafizji | Ali Hafizji is the CEO of Wednesday Solutions and the creator of the Vibe Sprints system — an AI-powered approach to product validation that gives early-stage startups up to 10x more chances to achieve product-market fit. A serial founder and technologist, Ali has built and scaled products handling over 1 billion+ requests per hour, authored technical books, and helped dozens of teams go from MVP to market traction.At Wednesday, he works with founders post-MVP, helping them avoid wasted sprints, move past vanity metrics, and build lean, validated solutions using Vibe Coding and AI-native teams. If you're working toward product-market fit in 2025, this is the framework you can't afford to ignore.In our conversation, Ali shares:→ Why polishing MVPs slows you down — and what to do instead→ How to structure rapid prototyping that tests real customer behaviour→ The #1 mistake startups make after launch→ How customer discovery fits into modern product management→ Why direction beats speed in the search for PMF→ What makes Vibe Coding different from agile or lean→ Why the future of startup teams is small, AI-native pods with massive velocityWhether you're a startup founder, product leader, or operator navigating the messy middle between MVP and traction, this episode is packed with practical insights for achieving startup success in 2025 and beyond.Where to find Ali Hafizji:→ Website: https://www.wednesday.is/→ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alihafizji/Where to find Mike Sirius:→ Website: https://www.mikesirius.com→ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/msirius/In this episode, we cover:00:00 Introduction to Vibe Sprints04:49 The Shift from Speed to Direction09:49 Understanding Insights and Validation15:13 The Dangers of Polishing MVPs19:51 The Role of AI in Product Development24:58 Measuring Success in Vibe Sprints29:56 The Future of Agile Practices41:03 The Precipice of Change in Enterprises44:05 AI Tools: Prototyping vs. Production47:06 The Role of Experienced Developers in AI50:30 Bottom-Up Innovation: The Future of AI Adoption52:42 Essential AI Tools for Development01:02:23 User Feedback: Observing and Understanding Users01:06:29 Proving Traction Before Development01:11:10 Balancing Validation and Runway Risk🎙️ Was this helpful? Let’s stay connected:→ Subscribe to never miss a drop→ Reviews mean the world — and help us grow→ Drop a comment — we actually read them 🙂→ Want to sponsor? Let’s chat: mike@msirius.com→ More episodes: https://masteringtechgrowth.com | — | ||||||
| 8/12/25 | ![]() We Spent $68M on LinkedIn Ads: What Actually Works for B2B Lead Gen — with Garrett Mehrguth | Garrett Mehrguth is the CEO of Directive and co-founder of Abe — a high-performance LinkedIn ads agency helping companies like Uber, Zoom, Gong, and AWS turn clicks into customers. With over $68 million spent on LinkedIn ads, Garrett brings a level of insight few marketers can match. In this episode, he reveals how to build a LinkedIn marketing engine that books meetings — not just impressions.Garrett has helped B2B brands generate serious revenue by mastering linkedin lead generation, nailing down linkedin ads targeting, and aligning linkedin ads KPIs with what actually matters to pipeline. Whether you're spending $5K or $500K a month, this episode will change how you think about b2b marketing on LinkedIn.In our conversation, Garrett shares:→ Why most B2B teams waste their LinkedIn ads budget→ The truth about linkedin ads metrics (and which ones lie)→ How to reverse-engineer your linkedin ads audience using real data→ Why $5K/month is not a “test budget” — it’s a trap→ How he builds intent-based funnels without fake “intent data”→ The 15-second video strategy that cuts CPLs by 70%→ Why "clicks" mean nothing if you're not booking meetingsWhether you're a startup founder, head of growth, or B2B marketing pro, this conversation is packed with no-fluff insights into what actually drives results on LinkedIn in 2025.Where to find Garrett Mehrguth:→ https://www.linkedin.com/in/garrettmehrguth/→ https://garrettmehrguth.com/→ https://directiveconsulting.com/→ https://www.abetheagency.com/→ https://moregoodcapital.com/Where to find Mike Sirius:→ https://www.linkedin.com/in/msirius/→ https://www.mikesirius.comIn this episode, we cover:00:00 The State of LinkedIn Advertising02:59 Understanding Marketing Dynamics05:54 Budgeting for Success in LinkedIn Ads09:04 Intent-Driven Targeting Strategies11:58 The Importance of Proper Budgeting15:12 Data-Driven Audience Targeting18:13 Leveraging AI for Market Insights21:14 The Role of Content in Marketing24:05 Optimizing Video Ads for Engagement27:14 Innovative Approaches to Lead Generation30:02 Sales Strategies for Effective Conversion32:58 Closing Thoughts on Marketing Success42:51 Authentic Engagement in Sales Calls45:24 Manufacturing Intent in Marketing46:45 The Power of Emotional Marketing50:12 Targeting the Right Decision Makers56:41 Importance of Tracking Marketing Metrics01:00:34 Common Mistakes in LinkedIn Advertising01:10:05 The Future of B2B Marketing StrategiesFor sponsorship inquiries, email mike@msirius.com#LinkedinAds #B2BMarketing #LeadGeneration #LinkedInMarketing #MarketingStrategy | — | ||||||
| 8/5/25 | ![]() Give a S**t : That´s The Seed All The Good Things Come From with Sphira Tucker | Spriha Tucker is the Field CTO at Buildkite — a developer-first platform powering high-scale CI/CD pipelines. She’s a two-time Y Combinator founder, and previously built dev tools at Google and Microsoft. She also co-founded Aviator, a startup that helped elite teams like Slack and Figma ship faster.At Buildkite, Spriha helps engineering teams navigate scaling challenges, eliminate organisational friction, and build sustainable momentum without burnout. If you're leading a dev team in 2025, this is a must-listen conversation.In our conversation, Spriha shares:→ Why developer productivity isn't about doing more — it's about reducing friction.→ What most tech leaders misunderstand about developer experience→ The hidden costs of pipeline complexity and CI/CD sprawl→ How to measure progress without weaponising metrics→ Why feedback loops beat deadlines every time→ How to align teams with clarity, not chaos→ The future of tooling and workflows in software engineeringWhether you're a CTO, engineering manager, or hands-on developer, this episode offers a tactical, honest look at what it takes to scale high-performing teams in the real world.Where to find Spriha Tucker:→ Website: https://buildkite.com/→ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/spriha-tucker/Where to find Mike Sirius:→ Website: https://www.mikesirius.com→ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/msirius/For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email mike@msirius.comRate us ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ and check our community at https://masteringtechgrowth.com/ | — | ||||||
| 7/29/25 | ![]() You Don't Need More Marketing, You Need More Visibility – Leverage LinkedIn to Get It with Ben Buaron | Today, Mike is joined by Ben Buaron, Founder & CEO of Windmill Growth. They help founders turn their LinkedIn into their number one growth channel. No hacks, no influencer playbooks, just real, sustainable visibility that brings in leads, builds credibility and opens doors. Ben’s been a founder himself and now teaches others how to stop hiding behind logos and leverage LinkedIn to build trust. Ben and Mike unpack why visibility beats marketing and how to make organic LinkedIn work for you, even if you're just getting started. KEY TAKEAWAYS You don´t need more marketing, you need visibility, which even a new startup can get on LinkedIn. Founder-led marketing is the future. Position yourself as a thought leader and focus on top-of-funnel content. Provide value and share your unique insights and opinions. Content strategy and consistency matter more than perfect writing. Stick to your posting timetable - 2-5 times a week is ideal. Use AI, but only to refine your content. Engagement is about quality, not quantity. Build relationships - avoid aggressive sales tactics. Trigger emotions through storytelling to drive engagement and long-term connection. LinkedIn is a long-term game. It takes 6-9 months to build your personal brand and generate leads. Organic content and personal branding can generate leads and revenue more cost-effectively than traditional advertising methods. BEST MOMENTS 00.05 "Early-stage founders think that slow growth means that they need more funnels, more content, more ads, and they tend to forget that people don't buy from perfect branding. They buy from people they trust." 5.03 "If I'm not posting on LinkedIn, I'm not exposing myself, I'm not exposing my company." 5.41 "I got inbounds from LinkedIn that generated me 12k in MRR in a single month. Just because I was putting myself out there." 13.15 "I prefer to have 1 billion people say, 'This guy built it,' than have $1 billion because of the power of 1 billion people." 36.17 “If was easy everyone would do it.” 47.51 “ You engage with your ICP’s content and your competitor’s content, and everyone else in your space’s content.” 20.15 "I generated $85,000 in June just from making really good content and combining outreach." 1.00.51 “A really good hook – a short hook that includes the word I or We, works.” If you enjoyed the show, please do me a favour - Hit that subscribe button and send me your growth challenges at https://masteringtechgrowth.com . I really want to know what you're working on and what keeps you up at night. ABOUT THE GUEST https://www.windmillgrowth.com ABOUT THE HOST Meet Mike, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and visionary with over two and a half decades of invaluable experience in founding and scaling successful tech start-ups. Mike brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge, and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and tech professionals. As a host, Mike is dedicated to sharing actionable insights, strategies, and stories gathered from conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and experts. With a remarkable ability to distil practical wisdom from guests, Mike curates engaging discussions that resonate with both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals. This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/ | — | ||||||
| 7/22/25 | ![]() How to Stay Visible When AI Decides What Shows Up When People Search with Bruce Clay | For today’s episode, Mike is joined by the father of SEO, Bruce Clay. Since 1996 he's been helping businesses get found online. He has taught 1000s of marketers and written several go-to SEO books. All while creating SEO strategies for brands like Netflix, eBay and Home Depot. Now he's focused on helping teams adapt their content for AI to stay visible as search evolves. You’ll learn all about AI Optimisation (AIO) - how to ensure your brand, products and services are included in the answers given by all of the major LLMs and about modern SEO. KEY TAKEAWAYS Ranking 1st in Google doesn´t guarantee you get seen. You need to be in the AI-generated answers too. AI uses search engine rankings to determine authority. If you don´t rank high, you won´t be in the AI results either. Good SEO and E-E-A-T (authority and trust) are vital. Well researched user question centred content that provides a full solution improves E-E-A-T and is good for AI Optimisation (AIO). Your content must be tailored to answer the specific needs and pain points for each user group (persona). Technical SEO and content structure matters. Bruce explains how to get them right. Use clear headers, short paragraphs, and create content that is easily readable by both humans and AI crawlers. Invest in your digital presence now. Optimize for multiple search features, including local packs, People Also Ask and AI. BEST MOMENTS 01:00 "The real game is getting into the AI generated answers and not just in the list of search results?" 14.13 “If you want to be considered for the AIO, you have to rank organically, and you have to provide an answer that is deliberate to the question.” 17.13 “Personalization is going to totally change how AI answers a question, and that poses a serious problem.” 29.16 "AI is a tool, not a solution, and you've got to use it that way." 37.01 “AIs will not select you as an authority to be presented as this potential answer if you're not already really ranking in Google.” 44.39 “You need a site that can be spidered.” 46.06 “Your listeners have to care about where their brand is going to be represented in Google search, in one year, not today,.” 1.11.31 “Identify the pain, identify the persona, identify what they buy, and then emphasise that as almost a cluster or silo within your website.” 1.22.31 “I think that voice search is going to be really big.” If you enjoyed the show, please do me a favour - Hit that subscribe button and send me your growth challenges at https://masteringtechgrowth.com . I really want to know what you're working on and what keeps you up at night. ABOUT THE GUEST https://www.bruceclay.com https://www.seotraining.com https://www.prewriter.ai ABOUT THE HOST Meet Mike, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and visionary with over two and a half decades of invaluable experience in founding and scaling successful tech start-ups. Mike brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge, and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and tech professionals. As a host, Mike is dedicated to sharing actionable insights, strategies, and stories gathered from conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and experts. With a remarkable ability to distil practical wisdom from guests, Mike curates engaging discussions that resonate with both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals. This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/ | — | ||||||
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| 7/20/25 | ![]() How to Truly Connect on LinkedIn and Turn Contacts into Clients with Natasha Walstra | For today’s episode, Mike is joined by Natasha Walstra, the founder and CEO of Near Point Strategies. She helps founders turn relationships into revenue using Smart Content, Strategic Outreach and the network they already have. Her clients don't chase followers. They get sales calls, replies, and gain real momentum just by showing up with the right message to the right people. She built this approach after leading brand strategy at Carbon and Forbes Books. Natasha explains how she and her clients turn LinkedIn conversations and connections into clients, every day. KEY TAKEAWAYS LinkedIn DMs have a 10% response rate compared to email outreach at 5%. Focus on building real relationships on LinkedIn. A high follower count means nothing if none of them buy from you. People use LinkedIn to get to know you and work out if they can trust you, so be authentic. Surround yourself with people who you know need your services. Collaborating with others is a powerful way to network and provide value. Spray and pray doesn´t work anymore. Don´t DM out of nowhere. Provide value, don´t just try to sell. It is far easier than you think to consistently create content that connects and has an impact. Natasha shares several strategies during the episode. Use AI to help you create e.g. Give it an idea, some context and a template to create content. Edit and post it. AI can help you to become a good copywriter. Gain insights into turning your existing professional network into potential business opportunities Video is powerful. Natasha explains how to use it even if you are shy about doing it. Just posting content leads nowhere. You have to engage in conversations, make thoughtful comments and have a reason to DM someone. BEST MOMENTS 1.50 "Most people treat LinkedIn growth as a numbers game: more posts, more views, more followers. But, what if you don't need more strangers in your network." 3.17 “Genuine relationships that lead to real revenue, that's growth. Not a bunch of likes.” 23.26 “Find a genuine reason to actually open a conversation with someone…cold outreach doesn’t work anymore.” 37.03 "Think about your audience, and do they need to hear from you seven days a week?" 49.10 "If you're not feeling inspired that day, then don't post... posting for posting's sake is going to lead to frustration and burnout." 1.04.03 "It's about building relationships. Little things open so many doors." If you enjoyed the show, please do me a favour - Hit that subscribe button and send me your growth challenges at https://masteringtechgrowth.com . I really want to know what you're working on and what keeps you up at night. ABOUT THE GUEST https://www.linkedin.com/in/ndwalstra https://nearpointstrategies.com Newsletter : https://nearpoint-strategies.kit.com/subscribe ABOUT THE HOST Meet Mike, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and visionary with over two and a half decades of invaluable experience in founding and scaling successful tech start-ups. Mike brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge, and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and tech professionals. As a host, Mike is dedicated to sharing actionable insights, strategies, and stories gathered from conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and experts. With a remarkable ability to distil practical wisdom from guests, Mike curates engaging discussions that resonate with both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals. This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/ | — | ||||||
| 7/8/25 | ![]() How Reflection and Purpose Drive Tech Innovation and Success with Elizabeth Bieniek | For today’s episode, Mike is joined by leadership and innovation consultant, Elizabeth Bieniek. The tech visionary who co-founded WebEx Hologram at Cisco and was named one of the topmost influential female founders by TechCrunch. Elizabeth helps founders and teams stay clear on their why, so they can make better choices and grow with purpose. KEY TAKEAWAYS Solve real human problems instead of just creating innovative features. Schedule regular, uninterrupted strategic thinking time. When deciding where to focus, ask – will this matter to the operation in a week´s time or several months’ time? Hold monthly team and quarterly offsite strategy meetings to avoid mission drift. Writing down your goals and thoughts, by hand, provides you with clarity. Use journaling extensively. Innovation isn't always about creating something entirely new but about solving existing problems in more efficient or creative ways. Taking action is more important than perfect planning. Start small, test your ideas, and be willing to course-correct quickly. Make the workplace fun and more human. Speak to 35 different people when doing research. That diversity of thought is revealing. Understand what your employees truly value. Hire and manage based on thinking and potential. Focus on developing your strengths rather than fixing every weakness. Delegate. Get out of your own head and just do it. Always ask why something is done a certain way. In many cases, the reason will no longer be valid. BEST MOMENTS 2.00 "Tech is always about the why? It's always about people first." 6.00 "Don't start running until you realize what direction you're going and who's carrying the water." 9.57 "Be bored for a while, because that's when your brain kicks in. You come up with a really cool idea." 21.29 “Teams get very demotivated when you don't have milestones, you don't have phases.” 28.32 “I think everyone needs to be very aligned to their contribution and how their contribution impacts the whole because otherwise you're just plugging code.” 37.22 “The technology needs to serve the purpose that you're trying to accomplish.” 40.25 “You can literally gamify anything. You can make anything fun.” 52.57 "Innovation is really just doing something differently." 56.04 "Action trumps everything." 1.05.33 “It´s the moment, taking an intentional pause every day.” 1.07.43 "I'm not hiring you to punch a timecard and fill a certain number of hours. I'm hiring you because of the way you think." If you enjoyed the show, please do me a favour - Hit that subscribe button and send me your growth challenges at https://masteringtechgrowth.com. I really want to know what you're working on and what keeps you up at night. ABOUT THE GUEST https://cakeontuesday.com ABOUT THE HOST Meet Mike, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and visionary with over two and a half decades of invaluable experience in founding and scaling successful tech start-ups. Mike brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge, and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and tech professionals. As a host, Mike is dedicated to sharing actionable insights, strategies, and stories gathered from conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and experts. With a remarkable ability to distil practical wisdom from guests, Mike curates engaging discussions that resonate with both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals. This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/ | — | ||||||
| 7/1/25 | ![]() Turn the Traffic You Already Have into Serious, Scalable Revenue with Matthew Stafford | For today’s episode, Mike is joined by Matthew Stafford, managing partner of Build Grow Scale, who has helped hundreds of e-commerce stores hit eight figures, including brands like Organifi and Pink Lily. They unpack taking e-commerce businesses from traffic-burning money pits to revenue-generating machines. Matthew shares data-driven strategies, smart conversion optimisation techniques, and a customer-centric approach that has taken numerous businesses from zero to six figures without additional ad spend. KEY TAKEAWAYS Traffic without conversion is a money pit. Data-driven decisions are always effective. Collect, collate, and present your data in a usable format that most people can quickly interpret. Customer search data reveals hidden product opportunities worth $100,000s. Simplify your website. Simplification scales. Build a website for the consumer, not you. A granny or 5-year-old should be able to buy from you. Know how often people come back and buy. Use Mathew's unique follow up approach for cart abandonment. Overselling in the cart hurts conversions. Use heat maps, recordings and A/B testing to reveal weak spots. Once fixed, they translate into $millions of extra sales. Each demographic browses differently. Personalisation, when not done in a creepy way, boosts conversions. Don't overwhelm customers with too many choices e.g. 15 colours. Speed up your website. Video sells. Treat customers like humans, not sales targets. Outstanding customer service is key to repeat business. BEST MOMENTS 00.38 "Traffic without conversions is essentially a money pit." 2.13.18 "If your tech stack is not organized in a way that is usable … it´s garbage in, garbage out." 11.34.54 “The number two searched item was unicorn, spelled wrong. They didn't have a unicorn for a stuffed animal, so they built one… On Amazon Prime Day, it did $498,000.” 25.02.06 “Have a website that’s really good at communicating with your customers. It's having a conversation when you're not around.” 39.36.07 “If you're not capturing at least 25% of your revenue from email … something's broken.” 1.06.23 “ Add the phone number or an email, you'll increase conversions, it´s trust.” 1.09.38 "The more complex you make the task, the less of them (customers) will do it again." 1.12.47 "Stop trying to beat them over the head to make more sales. Just treat them like a human, like you would want to be treated." If you enjoyed the show, please do me a favour - Hit that subscribe button and send me your growth challenges at https://masteringtechgrowth.com . I really want to know what you're working on and what keeps you up at night. ABOUT THE GUEST https://buildgrowscale.com/ https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pre-Suasion-Revolutionary-Way-Influence-Persuade/dp/1847941435 ABOUT THE HOST Meet Mike, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and visionary with over two and a half decades of invaluable experience in founding and scaling successful tech start-ups. Mike brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge, and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and tech professionals. As a host, Mike is dedicated to sharing actionable insights, strategies, and stories gathered from conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and experts. With a remarkable ability to distil practical wisdom from guests, Mike curates engaging discussions that resonate with both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals. This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/ | — | ||||||
| 6/24/25 | ![]() Social Media: What Not To Do If You Want Lasting Growth in 2025 with Tim O’Hearn | For today’s episode, Mike is joined by Tim O'Hearn, a software engineer, former Black Hat growth practitioner, and the author of Framed a Villain's Perspective on Social Media. For many years, Tim’s been inside the system, building tools that successfully manipulated feeds, scaled fake social media engagement and exploited attention at a mass scale. It is fair to say Tim has his finger on the pulse when it comes to what works on social media and what doesn´t. Yet, the approach he now advocates may surprise you. KEY TAKEAWAYS Mastering tech growth means capturing as much of the audience as is feasible Understand the difference between a founder brand and a business brand and don´t mix the two. Stop chasing virality. Searcher intent matters more than you think. It´s now almost impossible to reverse engineer and beat the algorithm. If you try, it raises black flags. Most social media platforms do not allow the use of automation tools; some can even be illegal. Some social media platforms shadow ban you which makes you less visible when they see guidelines being breached. You will have a trust score on social media. Tim explains how to protect that score. Taking the time you normally spend scrolling through socials and using it to tackle a big project is an incredibly powerful way to step up your game. Personalised outreach works; it outstrips everything else. Algorithm engineers are the new lobbyists. BEST MOMENTS 5.15 - "It's becoming surprisingly easy to start something. And then it becomes this game of attention online." 15.51 - "Often times chasing it (virality) means compromising the values of your brand." 21.00 - "Generative AI is a big problem." 36.07 "To my knowledge, in 2025 automation, in the general sense, is forbidden by most social media platforms." 53.08 "Even for us, we don't have a great way of identifying shadow bans as they happen." 55.17 "If you try to grey hat or black hat, it might just lead to you losing all your efforts to grow that account." 1.15.15 "That same (anti-terrorism) technology could very easily be used for mass censorship or surveillance of dissenting opinions. I think that is happening. I just don't know to what extent.” 1.26.35 "Personalized outreach is really, really important." 1.39.40 "An email list is the greatest safeguard against a platform banning you, or you getting de-platformed." If you enjoyed the show, please do me a favour - Hit that subscribe button and send me your growth challenges at https://masteringtechgrowth.com I really want to know what you're working on and what keeps you up at night. ABOUT THE GUEST Book - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Framed-Villains-Perspective-Social-Media-ebook/dp/B0DW2X8YSK https://www.linkedin.com/in/tohearn ABOUT THE HOST Meet Mike, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and visionary with over two and a half decades of invaluable experience in founding and scaling successful tech start-ups. Mike brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge, and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and tech professionals. As a host, Mike is dedicated to sharing actionable insights, strategies, and stories gathered from conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and experts. With a remarkable ability to distil practical wisdom from guests, Mike curates engaging discussions that resonate with both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals. This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/ | — | ||||||
| 6/18/25 | ![]() Flipping the script on how tech startups are built with Amir Barsoum | For today’s episode, Mike is joined by Amir Barsoum, who is the founder or co-founder of multiple highly successful businesses including Vezeeta, a leading digital healthcare platform, and In-Vitro Capital. Instead of looking for founders to invest in, Amir starts with a problem, looks for a solution, finds the right experts to solve that problem, and then builds the company. Amir walks us through how this works, why most people get things wrong and what it takes to build scalable AI-powered companies from scratch. If you enjoyed the show, please do me a favour - hit that subscribe button and send me your growth challenges at https://masteringtechgrowth.com . I really want to know what you're working on and what keeps you up at night. KEY TAKEAWAYS Building products that customers are almost compelled to pick is key to mastering tech growth. Referrals are rocket fuel. You can’t beat others speaking enthusiastically about how your product solved their problems. Find solutions for boring industries and niche down. There are lots of opportunities and far less competition. Invest time and money into validating the problem before developing a solution. The CEO must be strong in sales or engineering. Sales focuses on building relationships with customers, fully understanding their problems and the practicality of your solution. The engineer has a strong knowledge, often hands on, of the problem and the necessary expertise to identify, influence and deliver the solution. Access to a strong base of clients and customers is essential. Track your cash flow every day. AI will massively grow markets, which is why it won´t cause unemployment. AI agents will need to be managed. Build AI with tomorrow´s far lower costs in mind. Every employee should be doing outreach every day. They need contact with the market. BEST MOMENTS "Amir starts with an idea, a solution to a problem and only then finds the right experts to deliver it and turn it into a company." "The real growth comes from referrals." "A good CEO is either sales or engineer, anything else to us is a waste of time and effort." "Sales is the capacity to build bridges with your clients." "Take an LLM, train it on your own information and data, so the decisions it will be making will be without the potential for hallucination." "You structure the data in a way that feeds your AI agents, so you end up with better agents." "We´re very generous with the equity of a hired CEO and we call them founder." "They´re not just moving with the herd …. They're very good leaders." ABOUT THE GUEST https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirmbarsoum jobs@invitrocapital.com info@invitrocapital.com ABOUT THE HOST Meet Mike, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and visionary with over two and a half decades of invaluable experience in founding and scaling successful tech start-ups. Mike brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge, and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and tech professionals. As a host, Mike is dedicated to sharing actionable insights, strategies, and stories gathered from conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and experts. With a remarkable ability to distil practical wisdom from guests, Mike curates engaging discussions that resonate with both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals. This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/ | — | ||||||
| 6/10/25 | ![]() Process Mapping Yourself Away From Organisational Complexity and Chaos with Michael Schank | For today’s episode, Mike is joined by Michael Schank, the founder of Process Inventory Advisors and the author of Digital Transformation Success. For over two decades, Michael has helped companies clean up the way they work so they can grow without the chaos. Today, Michael walks us through his process and inventory framework. He breaks down the simple steps most startups skip which lead to small bits of waste within their processes that have a huge impact on their growth. KEY TAKEAWAYS If you don´t map your processes you are wasting a huge amount of time, energy and money. Start by process mapping one small area of your business. Then expand from there. Michael shares his process mapping technique in detail. Process mapping reveals everything that a company does and aligns all areas of the business. Lead times cripple businesses, and process mapping reveals these bottlenecks and waste. You will be surprised by the overlap between teams and misalignment. Involving every single person in process mapping actively encourages innovation and hugely improves engagement at all levels. Complex environments lead to a lack of agility. Process mapping ensures you use the fewest tools and the right ones. Once you know your processes, you can immediately see what can be automated. Documented processes enable you to train AI on how your business really works and ensures you do not feed AI garbage data. AI hallucination is still an issue, so you have to double check it. Startups need to be more intentional about how they grow. BEST MOMENTS 1.29 "Small bits of waste in processes can have a huge impact on growth." 14.21 "It all has to look and feel the same, so that you can read a process inventory for any group without needing a decoder ring." 27.25 "There's democratic innovation, where you recognize that every employee has some level of expertise in what they do, and if you can tap into that, you drive innovation into every process.” 41.52 "Having that full map gives you all the details you need to choose the right processes to automate." 42.38 "AI delivers its biggest benefits when built on structured and consistent operational data. Otherwise, it amplifies inconsistencies." 1.01.15 "If you make all the data transparent, and you make the accountability very strong, now you're distributing it across everybody." If you enjoyed the show, please do me a favour - hit that subscribe button and send me your growth challenges at https://masteringtechgrowth.com . I really want to know what you're working on and what keeps you up at night. GUEST'S LINKS LinkedIn - www.linkedin.com/in/michael-schank My book - https://a.co/d/7WAR6qa My website - ProcessInventory.com ABOUT THE GUEST https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-schank https://processinventory.com Book - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Digital-Transformation-Success-Achieving-Delivering-ebook/dp/B0CKSF1Z94 ABOUT THE HOST Meet Mike, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and visionary with over two and a half decades of invaluable experience in founding and scaling successful tech start-ups. Mike brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge, and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and tech professionals. As a host, Mike is dedicated to sharing actionable insights, strategies, and stories gathered from conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and experts. With a remarkable ability to distil practical wisdom from guests, Mike curates engaging discussions that resonate with both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals. This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/ | — | ||||||
| 6/3/25 | ![]() What are VCs Really Looking For? with Alexandra Nicoletti | Do you want to know what separates the startups that get funded from the ones that don´t? Today, Mike is joined by Alexandra Nicoletti, a partner at Camber Creek, one of the leading VC firms. Prior to this, Alexandra was in real estate and private equity at Apollo and worked in investment banking at Goldman Sachs. Alexandra has seen every version of a pitch you can imagine. Today she breaks down exactly how to target the right investors, prepare a winning pitch, deliver it and follow up. KEY TAKEAWAYS Mastering Tech Growth is about continually optimising the growth of your business. VCs now focus more on how strong the founding team is than they do on the product idea. Growth at all costs is no longer viable. Be clear about what your customer´s pain point is and why you decided there was money to be made from solving it. Tool change is painful for corporations. Demonstrate that what you offer represents an improvement that makes it worth going through that pain. Your investors become your partners, so it is vital they are a good fit. It´s no longer possible to ride the AI wave, it´s becoming old. Head in the cloud pitches don´t work. Be realistic and honest. Clearly identify who your customer will be. Pre-revenue startups can still raise funds. User testing, social proof and pilots are strong signs of traction. Briefly outline your go to market strategy during the pitch. If you can´t convince a VC they will not believe you can sell to a customer. BEST MOMENTS 2:27 "Every decision comes with a trade-off, particularly in the early stages." 7.00 “What VCs are looking for right now is smart growth. It's not growth at all costs.” 9:55 "At the end of the day, we're investing in the people. Less so the product." 10.22 "VCs will invest in a B+ idea with an A+ founding team versus an A+ idea, with a B+ founding team." 24.21 "We don’t need more generic wrappers for ChatGPT. What we do need is fresh perspectives….people doing things differently. " 32.05 "If you can’t sell to an investor, how will you sell to a customer?" 34.33 “Having put some thought into things like go to market is really important.” 41.41 "Founder relationships are a key reason why companies run into issues down the road.” 59.53 "Saying you're 100% going to IPO in five years … that is a red flag." 1.05.43 “I do not want to spend time watching a video demo of the product.” 1.14.53 “I want to know how much you're spending and what you're spending it on.” If you enjoyed the show, please do me a favour - hit that subscribe button and send me your growth challenges at https://masteringtechgrowth.com . I really want to know what you're working on and what keeps you up at night. ABOUT THE GUEST https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandra-nicoletti-a205ab11 https://cambercreek.com https://www.linkedin.com/company/camber-creek/ ABOUT THE HOST Meet Mike, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and visionary with over two and a half decades of invaluable experience in founding and scaling successful tech start-ups. Mike brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge, and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and tech professionals. As a host, Mike is dedicated to sharing actionable insights, strategies, and stories gathered from conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and experts. With a remarkable ability to distil practical wisdom from guests, Mike curates engaging discussions that resonate with both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals. This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/ | — | ||||||
| 5/27/25 | ![]() Zero Ad Spend, Maximum Growth: How Ben Sharf Built Platter Using Founder-Led Content | If you're serious about scaling without relying on paid ads, this episode is for you. Today, Mike is joined by Ben Sharf, co-founder of Platter, creator of 160+ Shopify storefronts, angel investor, and host of Turning Pro. He breaks down how shifting from company marketing to founder-led storytelling can be your biggest growth hack. Founders don’t win because their posts are perfect—or because they pour money into ads. They win because people buy from people, not logos. In 2025, founder-led content is the fastest, leanest way to build trust, drive growth, and scale—without breaking the bank. Ben shares how he did exactly that. KEY TAKEAWAYS Tech growth is about figuring out what you are good at and leaning into it. That´s your superpower. Ben scaled Platter without spending $1 on ads and with zero cold calling. People buy from people, not logos, founder led content is the fastest, most sustainable way to build trust, attract customers and scale. The story needs to be authentic, resonate and must be told by the founder themselves. People forget quickly. They only remember your last couple of posts. You have to post consistently to reinforce your message. Some of your biggest future customers will be silently following you. A content led strategy requires a lot of touch points before people buy. Lead with value, build a relationship and trust. Most of your content should not be salesy. To be memorable use the contrarian perspective. If you are selling to other businesses, focus on LinkedIn. Engage with people who engage with your posts. BEST MOMENTS 00.37 “People buy from people, not logos. In 2025, founder led content is the fastest, most sustainable way to build trust, attract customers and scale.” 03:12 "We´ve never spent $1 on an ad yet." 8:24 "Focus on what you're good at. Get really good at it and find someone else to do the things you're not good at." 15:00 " 99% of the time people don´t get started (with social media) because they're scared of being judged by others." 16.40 “People follow founders who post content because they fall in love with their story and they want to support them and become an advocate for them.” 17.10 “It takes a couple of seconds to break the trust, but it takes years to build it.” 32.18 “We've landed some of our largest investors and some of our best hires all through founder led content.” 48.00 “If you're asking, and it's just not happening it could simply be because you're not solving problems for people.” 51.25 “Don't overthink it. Start sharing and the quality will come with iteration.” ABOUT THE GUEST https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-sharf-b554a5b3 https://www.platter.com ABOUT THE HOST Meet Mike, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and visionary with over two and a half decades of invaluable experience in founding and scaling successful tech start-ups. Mike brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge, and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and tech professionals. As a host, Mike is dedicated to sharing actionable insights, strategies, and stories gathered from conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and experts. With a remarkable ability to distil practical wisdom from guests, Mike curates engaging discussions that resonate with both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals. https://masteringtechgrowth.com challenges@masteringtechgrowth.com This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/ | — | ||||||
| 5/20/25 | ![]() How to Scale as a Solopreneur Without a Team by Leveraging AI with Mike Todasco | For today´s episode, Mike is joined by Mike Todasco a visiting fellow at San Diego State University and former director of Innovation at PayPal. Mike holds over 100 patents and has a passion for leveraging AI to get things done fast. If you are a solopreneur who wants to scale quickly without building a team, this episode is very much for you. KEY TAKEAWAYS AI genuinely can super charge your business. Experiment to get the most out of AI. When it comes to mastering tech growth experimentation is key. According to McKenzie, businesses can use AI to eliminate 60 to 70% of their tasks. Use an AI bracelet to record what you do each day. Eliminate the tasks that are no longer necessary and aim to automate the rest. Use tools like make.com to start automating app-based tasks. It may take time to get each task automation to work, so you need to be persistent. You can outline a task to Zapier, and it will create a workflow of automation for you to tweak. Find a space or activity that lets you switch off fully and really think e.g. running or driving. That´s when the ideas flow. Pick an AI tool and go with it, learn it throughly. Once you´ve done that you will be able to master other AI tools far faster. Automate tasks that are expensive to outsource. Mike shares some surprising use cases. Empower the people who work for you with AI tools. Explore Notebook LLM for content creation. It relies solely on the sources you give it. Use reinforcement learning to get the most out of AI. The more feedback you give it the better. ChatGPT can now remember your previous chats, which means it can now learn about you, your preferences, what you are working, the language you like to use and more. Use AI in your day-to-day life e.g. to create your training routines BEST MOMENTS 00.57 "The majority of solopreneurs use AI without a system, no workflow, no structure, no AI leverage." 5.23 "Embrace your inner child, you need to experiment, you need to try stuff, you need to fail. That´s how you work with these AI tools." 13.08 "If you are not occasionally adding steps back into your processes that means you are not removing enough." 26.24 “The thing that kills ideation is having a phone. You just think oh god I´m so bored, I need to go on TikTok.” 38.26 “Just pick one AI tool and go with it. All of them are so darn good.” 52.16 “According to MIT Sloan, AI systems perform much better when they are treated as collaboration partners.” 1.02.16 “Find the tasks which are low hanging fruits, quick wins, which should not be done by hand.” ABOUT THE GUEST https://www.linkedin.com/in/todasco https://www.bee.computer – AI bracelet ABOUT THE HOST Meet Mike, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and visionary with over two and a half decades of invaluable experience in founding and scaling successful tech start-ups. Mike brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge, and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and tech professionals. As a host, Mike is dedicated to sharing actionable insights, strategies, and stories gathered from conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and experts. With a remarkable ability to distil practical wisdom from guests, Mike curates engaging discussions that resonate with both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals. This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/ | — | ||||||
| 5/13/25 | ![]() Staying Visible in the World of AI Search and Invisible Clicks with Quentin de Quelen | Today, Mike is joined by Quentin de Quelen the CEO and cofounder of Meilisearch, one of the fastest growing open-source search engines, which can easily be integrated into websites and applications. Quentin helps companies create fast, customisable, typo-proof search experiences. Today, for research, 46% of Gen Z prefer Instagram and TikTok. YouTube is now the go-to for tutorials and reviews, while ChatGPT, Perplexity, Voice Assistant, etc. are also popular. In an environment like that, you have to ask yourself, "How are people going to find me and find what they need from me?" This episode has the answers. KEY TAKEAWAYS How people search and the evolution of the tools they use changes monthly. Most of the time, you can still impact how you appear in the various search interfaces. Consumers are increasingly in discovery mode; they are no longer simply looking for one specific thing. E.g. They are less likely to type in a specific trainer; they want to know what is available and choose from there. Meilisearch is very good at ascertaining the intent of the search and delivering results based on that. The structure of our website data will change to facilitate LLMs, Quentin explains why MCPs are likely to play a role. Having very intentional pages on your website helps to better control what content ChatGPT etc uses to answer users’ questions. There is very little difference between how you target voice searches and LLM searches, but the response needs to differ. To glean invaluable information about your customers, analyse all of your user queries and their search intent. Meilisearch is particularly good for this. Use your query results to create better adaptive content. Keep your data clean to make it easier to search. To build user trust, be transparent and provide sources. Schema still helps to organize data. Consider using LLM.txt. In the LLM age, c**p site content is even more damaging. Use as many formats as possible for your content, including video. BEST MOMENTS 3:42 "Search, today, is moving quite fast…now it´s changing every month." 6:48 "Whatever the medium, there is always transcription to a final search that will be made." 14:07 "You don´t want to let ChatGPT call your website, find whatever results and showcase it all to users." 21:44 "One intent, one page…works best." 28.33 “Know when not to answer.” 44.11 “People can choose whatever model they prefer …it’s easier to be trusted.” 50.13 “Think about what your user expects and manage your data to look like what your user expects.” 57.01 “Split your pages into relevant segments.” 1.07.25 “Write content that is mindful, content people want to read.” ABOUT THE GUEST https://www.meilisearch.com ABOUT THE HOST Meet Mike, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and visionary with over two and a half decades of invaluable experience in founding and scaling successful tech start-ups. Mike brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge, and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and tech professionals. As a host, Mike is dedicated to sharing actionable insights, strategies, and stories gathered from conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and experts. With a remarkable ability to distil practical wisdom from guests, Mike curates engaging discussions that resonate with both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals. This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/ | — | ||||||
| 5/6/25 | ![]() How to Plan for 10x Growth Without Over Engineering with Marcus Fontoura | For today’s episode, Mike is joined by Marcus Fontoura, Azure Core CTO, Technical Fellow at Microsoft, holder of 50 patents and the author of A Platform Mindset. Marcus is certainly a man who knows how to scale tech without breaking it. If your startup is taking off so fast that you can’t keep up or are drowning in bugs and relying on hot fixes and workarounds to hold things together, this episode is for you. It teaches you how to stop scaling your technical debt and redirect your energy and resources into scaling success. KEY TAKEAWAYS Marcus helped to shape some of the planet´s fastest scaling systems, including Google and Yahoo. Disconnected systems slow you down more than missing features. Decide on the technology, platforms, and tools early and get everyone to use them. When you tell developers which tools they will use from day 1 it frees up bandwidth for them to create faster and avoids resentment when you have no choice but to standardise the platforms used. Recognise when it is time to move from the validation stage to the professionalisation stage. Invest in infrastructure and tools that are easy to scale as demand rises. Avoid over engineering. Make sure all of your systems integrate to avoid silos and repeating work. Marcus explains how. Most startups (75%) fail because they scale too fast. On average, a day per week per developer is wasted fixing poorly planned and implemented code etc. Creating a high performing team culture is the key to fast and efficient growth. People don´t change easily that is why you need to cultivate sound cultural values, communication, trust, collaboration, willingness to take feedback etc. Protect your company values even when hyper scaling. Don’t hire brilliant jerks, they pull everyone down. Cultural skills are hard to teach, but most tech skills can be taught in months. The CEO needs to be a good role model. Build trust and collaboration between teams. BEST MOMENTS 1:09 "The fix? It starts with the platform mindset." 4:30 "Tech growth equals preparing for scaling." 16.33 "Developers waste 23% of their time…reworking bad past solutions." 30.00 "Recognise what you don´t know and pull in people who can actually help you." 43.12 "Understand the phase you are in… and scale accordingly." 50.11 "Any system you build should have inbound and outbound APIs." 54.25 "The culture enables a lot of efficiency when teams trust each other." 1.08.11 "When you are ready for hyper growth…hire the best talent you can get." 1.16.30 “Have a growth mindset to build a culture to leverage platforms for impact.” ABOUT THE GUEST https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcusfontoura Multipliers Book - https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/Liz-Wiseman/author/B00369WNUW Ideal Team Member - https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/Patrick-Lencioni/author/B001ILFMB2 ABOUT THE HOST Meet Mike, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and visionary with over two and a half decades of invaluable experience in founding and scaling successful tech start-ups. Mike brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge, and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and tech professionals. As a host, Mike is dedicated to sharing actionable insights, strategies, and stories gathered from conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and experts. With a remarkable ability to distil practical wisdom from guests, Mike curates engaging discussions that resonate with both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals. | — | ||||||
| 4/29/25 | ![]() Using LinkedIn to Supercharge Growth with Graham Riley | For today’s episode, Mike is joined by Graham Riley, a LinkedIn strategist, speaker, and founder of LinkedIn Enterprises. For 20+ years, Graham has been helping B2B companies generate millions in revenue using LinkedIn. His strategies don´t just get you likes; they drive deals. He and Mike discuss how you need to respond to drastic algorithm changes, why your execs need to engage on LinkedIn, quickly create content, take advantage of LinkedIn visitor data that many people are not even aware of, and much more. KEY TAKEAWAYS The majority of LinkedIn advice is out of date. LinkedIn is not just another social media platform or a resume repository. It is a sales generator. Engagement is the key to leveraging LinkedIn. Respond to your comments and do it properly. Comments that elevate what was said and add value are the most effective. 75% of visitors to Graham´s profile visit after reading his comments. Your execs' silence is hurting your brand visibility. Execs want to hear from thought leaders, from other execs. LinkedIn enables your execs to connect, build awareness, trust and belief. With LinkedIn, you have to take a strategic approach. Use business impact language. Say the right things to the right audience at the right time to generate curiosity in your ability to solve the problem. Create a great LinkedIn profile by consistently doing a series of little things right. Marketing, sales and product delivery are all a part of acquiring a customer and turning them into a repeat customer. Recently, the algorithm changed. If your posts have no interaction, they will not be seen. Engaging with comments the right way is essential. Train AI train well, use the right AI tools and do it well. Take your business whitepaper, distil it and turn it into snackable content. Keep repeating your messages. If you don´t, people forget. BEST MOMENTS 1:47 "Graham is the only guest who has managed to get 400 people tuned in for this LinkedIn event, normally it is about 200 people." 5:30 “People trust people…content from individuals especially executives builds more trust." 10:53 "The power comes when all of those components are working in harmony with each other, just like in a car." 32.44 “LinkedIn is telling you that you should care about how much your comment is getting seen.” 46.00 “How you behave and communicate with me is shaping my perception of how much attention I should pay.” 1.03.04 “Somebody with a free profile can generate opportunities, but it’s much harder.” 1.06.12 “Use your LinkedIn profile to mimic the professional behaviours that you would have at a trade show or conference.” 1.11.14 “ Around 75% of the people who visit my profile have come from the comments that I've made.” ABOUT THE GUEST https://www.linkedin.com/in/grahamkeithriley ABOUT THE HOST Meet Mike, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and visionary with over two and a half decades of invaluable experience in founding and scaling successful tech start-ups. Mike brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge, and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and tech professionals. As a host, Mike is dedicated to sharing actionable insights, strategies, and stories gathered from conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and experts. With a remarkable ability to distil practical wisdom from guests, Mike curates engaging discussions that resonate with both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals. | — | ||||||
| 4/22/25 | ![]() SaaS Conversion Alchemy - Using Copy, UX and Decision-Making Psychology to Gain More Customers with Chris Silvestri | For today’s episode, Mike is joined by Chris Silvestri, the founder of Conversion Alchemy. Chris helps B2B SaaS companies break through the noise, reach more would-be customers and show them why they are the obvious choice. Chris’s carefully honed approach uses the alchemy of copy, UX, and decision-making psychology to turn browsers and visitors into loyal, paying customers. He digs deep into customer research, pulls out real insights, who your real buyer is, what their buying decision making process is and determine what language will resonate with them, so that your message lands and converts. KEY TAKEAWAYS Mastery is about going deeper than your competition. Invest in customer research. You can't write copy that converts without it. Build a repeatable research process. There are layers to research. The surface layer of research is reviews and competitors’ products. The deeper layers include the customer experience while using a product like yours and why customers behave as they do. Focus on the individual decisions customers make during their buying journey and why they make them. Uncover your unique narrative by asking customers what they think existing providers are doing wrong. Use reviews to understand the language your customers use. Your copy needs to resonate with – daily users, the purchasing decision maker and the check signer. Use AI combined with human data to simulate personas. Chris explains how and which tools to use. According to HubSpot, 72% of SaaS websites fail to clearly explain what they offer. Get your value proposition right. Blend features with benefits. Test and tweak your copy. To truly connect with people, use their language, their pain points and their motivations. Be clear on what you do, how you do it and who you do it for. BEST MOMENTS 1.14 "People underestimate the power of good copy when it comes to conversions." 3:25 "Invest more in research." 6:36 "The deep-seated layer tells you why customers make the decisions they make and how they make them." 15:24 "To uncover your customer´s pain points….reviews are a good starting point." 31:00 "You can make sure that everything it gives is accurate and that it doesn´t hallucinate." 40:40 "You can simulate personas with AI, but not real customer behaviour, at least not yet." 47:73 “Imagine that your copy needs to continue the phrase "I want to … that's your valuable position." 59:00 "The right message basically has the right positioning with the right language for the right audience." 1.05.36 “The best copy is copy that doesn´t look like copy.” ABOUT THE GUEST https://conversionalchemy.net https://www.linkedin.com/in/christophersilvestri https://www.amazon.co.uk/Demand-Side-Sales-101-Customers-Progress/dp/1544509987 ABOUT THE HOST Meet Mike, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and visionary with over two and a half decades of invaluable experience in founding and scaling successful tech start-ups. Mike brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge, and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and tech professionals. As a host, Mike is dedicated to sharing actionable insights, strategies, and stories gathered from conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and experts. With a remarkable ability to distil practical wisdom from guests, Mike curates engaging discussions that resonate with both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals. | — | ||||||
| 4/15/25 | ![]() Supercharge Your Commercial Product By Doing Open Source the Right Way with Lukas Gentele | For today’s episode, Mike is joined by Lukas Gentele, CEO and co-founder of Loft Labs, to discuss how to ensure that your open-source project doesn’t end up being one of the 80% that fail. Lukas has successfully launched multiple open-source projects and turned them into profitable businesses. Through this episode, he provides the bones of a framework you can use to do the same. KEY TAKEAWAYS Open source needs to solve real problems, ones that people are willing to pay to have solved. Your open-source product needs to solve problems, but not to the point where nothing is left to build a commercial product that will still attract buyers.You are building 2 tools. Avoid interdepartmental rivalry - don´t silo the development of the two products. The build it and they will come mentality doesn´t work. Write and continuously publish content to increase the chances of your product taking off. Create communities of your own. Use them to better understand who your customers are and what their pain points are now and in the future. Fully engage with users to turn them into contributors. Value ideas and usage insights just as much as coding. Don’t expect your community to build a lot of code. They will, but it will be limited. Recognise those that contribute. Years on, continue to engage with your users, release enhancements and new content to maintain momentum. Continuously update your readme, include a demo video, don´t skimp on the support docs. Without these using your tool becomes too difficult and your reputation suffers. Offer a free trial for paid features. Make the transition from open source to your paid product a no brainer and easy. BEST MOMENTS 00.30 "80% of open-source projects ultimately flop." 02:52 "Focus on the right problem in the right market." 07.47 “When you ship new features and talk about them, you create more and more opportunities.” 22.04 “ There needs to be a balance between what's open source and what's commercial.” 25.32 "That's the beautiful effect of open source; people actually want to work with the folks that built it." 30.12 "You are effectively building two different tools. One is open source, one is enterprise. ." 34.27 "If we had just launched a commercial offering, I don't think we would have a company today." 35.29 “There's a balance between what you open source and what you don’t. You don't want to tip the scale either way." 39.23 "Over 90% of users are consumers, not contributors." 45.29 "These people feel even more engaged with the product. They feel part of this community. They feel part of the project." 58.00 “Your success will equal other people's successes.” ABOUT THE GUEST https://www.vcluster.com https://github.com/loft-sh/vcluster https://slack.vcluster.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/gentele https://x.com/lukasgentele https://www.loft.sh ABOUT THE HOST Meet Mike, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and visionary with over two and a half decades of invaluable experience in founding and scaling successful tech start-ups. Mike brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge, and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and tech professionals. As a host, Mike is dedicated to sharing actionable insights, strategies, and stories gathered from conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and experts. With a remarkable ability to distil practical wisdom from guests, Mike curates engaging discussions that resonate with both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals. | — | ||||||
| 4/8/25 | ![]() How Tech Entrepreneurs Can Turn Clicks into Revenue with Sam Piliero | Today, Mike is joined by Sam Piliero, founder of The Moonlighters, a marketing agency helping brands scale profitably. Sam and his team break down why most brands struggle to scale their ads, and how small fixes in strategy can make the difference between them running ads that are burning cash and ads that enable firms to scale profitably. Sam explains how to use AI for marketing, work out what strategy is right for your company and which ad platforms are providing the best exposure and ROI, right now. KEY TAKEAWAYS Small changes in strategy can take you from burning cash running ineffective ads to spending a lot less while seeing sales soar. AI combined with manual oversight is now an effective way to craft, monitor and tweak ads. The new Meta UI is going to be transformative. The number of campaigns you should be running changes as you evolve. Nurture your existing customers but dedicate most of your budget to customer acquisition. Setting up your pixels and using that data is vital. At the start, be everywhere. Gather the data, then focus on the platforms that work best. Leverage all of the channels in the G Suite (Google). Right now, there are lots of opportunities on X for small businesses. Include as many formats as possible in each ad campaign to increase your placement levels. People resonate with stories. Analysing your ROI is essential. Sam explains exactly how to do it. Drill down into what times of the day/week convert best for you. BEST MOMENTS 3:19 "he next six months, we're going to see an acceleration of the use of some of the AI tools." 5:46 "You have to really focus on what's actually functioning the best today, and then focus on six months, nine months, then a year from now." 7:22 "Allow the market to iron things out, be a little bit later in adopting these new things." 9:55 "Companies that scale successfully evolve their customer acquisition model." 12:38 "Early days, it's okay to have even just one or two campaigns." 17.20 “Facebook and Google are the best converting platforms, period, right now.“ 21.01 “Almost every time the geo-located campaigns are outperforming the E-com side because we are targeting a specific cohort of people.“ 25.35 “Whenever big advertisers remove themselves from an ad platform, the cost of advertising decreases drastically.” 26.43 “If you spend the same amount across the board, e.g. $1,000 you would typically be seeing Facebook and Google outperform.” 32.05 “The more value you put in a piece of content, the more views it gets.” 33.16 “Virality is not only unique, it is actually earned.” 42.00 “Don't overreact to slight adjustments in the ad account.” 51.29 “Always focus on minimizing wasted ad spend and reallocating that ad spend to the best possible place.” EPISODE RESOURCES https://themoonlighters.com/techgrowth https://www.youtube.com/@SamPiliero Social - @SamPiliero ABOUT THE HOST Meet Mike, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and visionary with over two and a half decades of invaluable experience in founding and scaling successful tech start-ups. Mike brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge, and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and tech professionals. As a host, Mike is dedicated to sharing actionable insights, strategies, and stories gathered from conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and experts. With a remarkable ability to distil practical wisdom from guests, Mike curates engaging discussions that resonate with both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals. | — | ||||||
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