About this episode

Steve Phillips discusses how he scaled Zappi and the importance of innovation and AI in business.

Market research used to take four weeks and cost $20,000. Steve Phillips built Zappi to turn that into four hours and $2,000—and he started 12 years ago, long before generative AI made this vision sound obvious. Now, with nearly 300 people and $80 million in revenue, he's challenging his organisation to double revenues in five years without adding headcount by pairing every employee with an AI agent to handle the annoying, time-consuming work. In this episode, Steve breaks down why entrepreneurs can actually be lazy (in the right way), why you should never hire yourself, why innovation is a mindset rather than an age, and how going from 40 to 140 people in six months was utterly disastrous but created an amazing culture that propelled the business for years. He also shares why he stepped aside as CEO, how he maintains his role as Chief Innovation Officer, and why the future is already here—we're just not utilising AI to do amazing things in business yet. What you'll learn: 💡 Why entrepreneurs can be lazy—and why doing "work" might be the wrong thing 🚫 Why you should hire for your weaknesses, not people who are just like you 🧠 Why innovation is a mindset at 56, not just for…

People in this episode

Host: Dominic Monkhouse

Guest: Steve Phillips

Topics covered

• entrepreneurship
• leadership
• AI in business
• scaling companies
• innovation mindset
• organizational culture

Keywords

• market research
• revenue growth
• AI agents
• productivity
• entrepreneurial mindset
• scaling challenges

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Zappi

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