Startup Hustle

Startup Hustle
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Startup Hustle is a podcast for entrepreneurs, by entrepreneurs.  With the mission of telling the real story of startups and entrepreneurs, topics range from funding to failure and beyond.  If you want to start, own, or build a business then you're in the right place.   

  1. 4 hrs ago

    The 2026 State of IT Staffing: Trends in Hiring, AI, and Offshore

    "Both things are true. Software jobs are projected to grow 15%, and 74% of employers say they can't fill the roles. That's the whole story of IT staffing in 2026." This week on Startup Hustle, Matt Brown, Full Scale's head of marketing, put me in the guest chair to walk through our new State of IT Staffing report, a data-heavy look at where tech hiring actually stands heading into 2026. Here's what you'll get out of it: ⚡ The 2026 paradox, why the field isn't shrinking but the entry ramp into it is breaking, with new-grad hiring down 65% at big tech ⚡ Why the job shifted from "engineering" back to "development," and why AI made product thinking the scarce skill ⚡ Why AI sped up the typing but left the judgment exactly as hard, so the value moved to senior people ⚡ Why retention is the number the industry can't fake, and why AI turned it from nice-to-have into the whole game ⚡ Why software has never been cheaper to build, and why that's a reason to build more, not cut If you're hiring engineers, leading a team, or building a career in software, this one is worth your time. ⏱️ Episode Breakdown 00:33 Introduction and overview of the episode 02:39 Full scale's employee satisfaction and recognition 05:30 The impact of AI on software development roles 10:40 The 2026 paradox: job growth vs. role filling 15:35 The importance of product thinking and customer feedback 20:36 Decoupling headcount from output with AI 25:21 Remote work, location independence, and cultural shifts 30:37 Running engineering teams in 2026 and beyond 35:35 The need for strategic focus and organizational agility 40:37 Conclusion and key takeaways from the episode Links & Resources Read the full report - [https://fullscale.io/blog/state-of-it-staffing/ Full Scale(https://fullscale.io/blog/state-of-it-staffing/`Full) – Build your dev team quickly and affordably What Smart CTOs Are Doing Differently With Offshore Teams in 2025 Subscribe to the Global Talent Sprint If you're trying to get your team out of the basement and into real product ownership, this episode is your playbook. Stop being a ticket factory. Build teams that think, create, and lead.

  2. Aug 6

    Why AI Made Software Engineers More Human

    "AI scribes are just a feature. The record of clinical judgment is the moat." I talked with Kush Shah, founder and CEO of Noted Dent, on Startup Hustle this week. Noted Dent uses AI to handle clinical documentation for dentists, so practitioners aren't stuck writing notes at 11pm or on the weekend, and so they're covered when the auditors and health funds come knocking. Here's what you'll get out of it: ⚡ Why vibe coding gets you to an MVP and no further, and why Kush deleted 8,000 lines of AI-generated code in three months ⚡ Why the job of a software engineer has changed, and how AI has actually made it more human ⚡ Why demand, not product, is the hardest thing in any business, even eight years in ⚡ Why startups are the best place for young engineers to learn, and why job-title silos hold them back ⚡ What actually makes the leap to CEO so hard when you come from a technical background If you're a technical founder, an engineer eyeing your next move, or anyone building in a regulated space, this one is worth your time. Listen to the Startup Hustle podcast anywhere you listen to podcasts! ⏱️ Episode Breakdown 01:06 Introduction and Anthony Jackson's background 02:47 Is software development dead again? 03:48 The impact of AI on coding and human judgment 04:41 The importance of responsibility in software development 06:33 The challenge of product management and customer feedback 10:52 Transitioning from individual contributor to manager 12:00 Building effective teams and leadership culture 15:14 Anthony Jackson's leadership OS book and approach 19:00 The significance of company and team culture 21:41 The impact of good and bad managers 22:06 Anthony Jackson's newsletter and coaching 23:48 Connecting software developers with customers 25:40 Empathy for users and understanding their experience 29:06 Where to find Anthony Jackson's resources and books Links & ResourcesConnect with Kush Shah on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kush-shah-kush/ Noted Dent - https://noteddent.com/ What Smart CTOs Are Doing Differently With Offshore Teams in 2025 Subscribe to the Global Talent Sprint Full Scale – Build your dev team quickly and affordably If you’re trying to get your team out of the basement and into real product ownership, this episode is your playbook. Stop being a ticket factory. Build teams that think, create, and lead. Follow the show, rate it, and send this to someone who’s still trying to do “real Scrum.” They need it more than you do.

  3. Jul 30

    LeadershipOS Decoded: Building Teams That Run Without You in the Room

    "Back in the 1900s when I was crossing the Great Plains in a covered wagon, programming in the back, the cover headline was: Software Development is Dead." I talked with Anthony Jackson, a CTO with 30 years across healthcare tech and enterprise software and author of the Architecture Protocol series, on Startup Hustle this week. Anthony is the creator of LeadershipOS, a framework for building teams that keep running when the leader isn't in the room. Here's what you'll get out of it: ⚡ Why "software development is dead" has been a headline for 30+ years, and why the human judgment layer never goes away ⚡ Why the real gap isn't more engineers, it's product people (and engineers who think like them) ⚡ What actually changes when you go from individual contributor to manager, and why almost no company trains you for it ⚡ Why every line of code still needs a name attached to it, especially in regulated industries ⚡ How "lossy compression" quietly ruins decisions as they filter up and back down through management ⏱️ Episode Breakdown 00:32 Introduction and Anthony Jackson's background 02:13 Is software development dead again? 03:14 The impact of AI on coding and human judgment 04:07 The importance of responsibility in software development 05:59 The challenge of product management and customer feedback 10:18 Transitioning from individual contributor to manager 11:36 Building effective teams and leadership culture 14:41 Anthony Jackson's leadership OS book and approach 18:26 The significance of company and team culture 21:07 The impact of good and bad managers 21:38 Anthony Jackson's newsletter and coaching 23:14 Connecting software developers with customers 25:06 Empathy for users and understanding their experience 28:18 Where to find Anthony Jackson's resources and books Links & ResourcesConnect with Anthony Jackson on LinkedIn Anthony Jackson's Website - https://technicaleader.coach What Smart CTOs Are Doing Differently With Offshore Teams in 2025 Subscribe to the Global Talent Sprint Full Scale – Build your dev team quickly and affordably If you’re trying to get your team out of the basement and into real product ownership, this episode is your playbook. Stop being a ticket factory. Build teams that think, create, and lead. Follow the show, rate it, and send this to someone who’s still trying to do “real Scrum.” They need it more than you do.

  4. Jul 23

    It's Not About the Code. It's About the Problem.

    I don't view engineers being out of a job. I view software engineers finally coming back to a real job." I talked with Adrian Gutierrez, co-founder of Ledgre, on Startup Hustle this week. Ledgre is an AI-native accounting platform built specifically for real estate investors, putting agentic AI to work doing the bookkeeping instead of handing you one more piece of software to manage. Here's what you'll get out of it: ⚡ Why he was the startup's bookkeeper by hand for a year before writing a line of product, and why doing things manually first is the shortcut ⚡ Why AI didn't kill software engineering, it exposed that distribution and the value prop were always the hard part ⚡ Why domain knowledge beat his development skills every time when getting Ledgre off the ground ⚡ What running a startup as a digital nomad across Europe, Spain, and Argentina taught him about which problems are actually worth solving ⏱️ Episode Breakdown 00:42 Introduction to Adrian Gutierrez and Ledger 01:04 Adrian's background in FinTech and PropTech 00:49 The origin story of Ledgre and market gaps 02:54 How AI is transforming property management tools 04:11 Adrian's experience owning rental properties 05:18 The importance of domain knowledge in product development 06:18 Manual bookkeeping and workflow complexity 07:15 Scaling wisely and understanding problems before automating 08:24 The importance of iteration and customer feedback 08:52 Challenges of outreach and building relationships 10:16 Cold outreach and response rates 11:03 The impact of AI on distribution and problem-solving 12:10 AI exposing weaknesses in traditional software development 13:36 Reviving software engineering practices with AI 14:32 Shift in marketing and distribution roles 15:55 Using AI for marketing and SEO automation 17:22 AI's role in software development and team management 21:10 Living as a digital nomad and its impact on business 22:45 Traveling and understanding global fintech landscapes 24:33 Financial and payment infrastructure differences worldwide 25:13 The value of solving real problems in different markets 25:48 How to learn more about Ledger and Adrian If you're building a product, leading engineers, or working in fintech and proptech, this one is worth your time. Listen to the Startup Hustle podcast anywhere you listen to podcasts! Links & Resources Connect with Adrian Gutierrez on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/adrian--gutierrez/ Ledgre Website - https://www.ledgre.ai/

  5. Jun 25

    The Speed of Context: Why AI Changed What Engineers Actually Do

    Most engineering teams are still optimizing for the wrong thing. They chase the speed of code when the real bottleneck is the speed of context. Matt Watson and Eban Bisong, founder and CEO of Senvi, get into what actually changes when AI moves from a coding tool to a teammate. Eban has spent his career as a founding engineer, and his approach is hands-on: don't tell skeptical engineers AI works, show them, every standup, until the pushback turns into excitement. At Park DNA he built "RTD2," an OpenClaw-powered droid wired read-only into their data sources, Slack, and Jira. It answered support questions before an engineer could, created its own bug tickets, and joined meetings through Fireflies so nothing got lost. The lesson underneath all of it: record everything, because the team that captures the most context ships the right thing fastest. Matt also shares his own three-week rabbit hole with Claude Cowork, $8K in tokens, a fully rebuilt Full Scale website, a thousand dead blog posts deleted, and 200 more rewritten. They go a few rounds on why it's a bad time to be a coder but a great time to be a builder, why "good enough" is a real standard and not a cop-out, and why ownership beats asking permission every time. If you build software or lead an engineering team, listen now. And if you want to try Eban's voice-first AI journal, visit senvi.ai. ⏱️ Episode Breakdown 00:42 From Founding Engineer to Solo Founder 01:52 Using AI as an Engineering Leader 03:24 Building RTD2: An AI Teammate for Support 05:27 The Speed of Context, Not Code 06:11 Why You Should Record Everything 08:59 Winning Over AI-Skeptical Engineers 11:50 The AI Spectrum Across 80 Clients 13:35 A Bad Time to Be a Coder, a Great Time to Build 14:03 Why "Good Enough" Is Good Enough 14:52 Human-in-the-Loop and Reviewing AI's Work 16:28 Going All-In on Senvi 19:01 Validating the Product With a Beta Group 21:01 Bootstrapping a Truly AI-Native Company Links & ResourcesConnect with Eban Bisong on LinkedIn Senvi.ai - senvi.ai What Smart CTOs Are Doing Differently With Offshore Teams in 2025 Subscribe to the Global Talent Sprint Full Scale – Build your dev team quickly and affordably If you’re trying to get your team out of the basement and into real product ownership, this episode is your playbook. Stop being a ticket factory. Build teams that think, create, and lead. Follow the show, rate it, and send this to someone who’s still trying to do “real Scrum.” They need it more than you do.

  6. Jun 18

    AI, Protein, and GLP-1s: What's Actually Working in Health Tech

    Most people are already asking AI about their health. Almost none of them believe the answers. Around 40% use it to make wellness choices, but fewer than 5% trust what it says. Matt Watson and Josh Anthony, CEO of Nlumn, dig into why. Josh has spent 25 years in food and nutrition, and his take is blunt: trust drops fast as the question gets serious, from a recipe to a diagnosis, and the fix isn't a smarter chatbot. It's pairing the data with a human people actually trust. They cover what's real right now too. The protein obsession. Beans having a moment. GLP-1s and why weight loss is now about saving muscle, not just dropping fat. Why people are building their own messy personalization stacks because no single company does it well. Matt also explains why he flat out ignores his doctors on cholesterol, and he and Josh go a few rounds on whether ultra-processed food is the problem or a missed opportunity. If you build or invest in health products, listen now. And if you want help with personalized nutrition, reach Josh@nlumn.com or info@nlumn.com. ⏱️ Episode Breakdown 00:28 Introduction to Health Tech and AI 03:36 Trust in AI for Health and Nutrition 06:29 Personalization in Health and Nutrition 09:26 Emerging Trends in Health Tech 12:23 The Role of GLP-1 in Weight Management 15:29 Challenges in the Food Industry 18:37 Innovative Products in Health and Nutrition Links & ResourcesConnect with Joshua Anthony on LinkedIn Nlumn Website - https://www.nlumn.com/ Email - mailto: info@nlumn.com What Smart CTOs Are Doing Differently With Offshore Teams in 2025 Subscribe to the Global Talent Sprint Full Scale – Build your dev team quickly and affordably If you’re trying to get your team out of the basement and into real product ownership, this episode is your playbook. Stop being a ticket factory. Build teams that think, create, and lead.

  7. Jun 11

    Building Software Solo with Beth Epperson of Legacy Purposed

    Matt Watson sits down with Beth Epperson, founder and CEO of Legacy Purposed, here in the Kansas City area. Beth came up through marketing and branding, including the brand launch for Hyvee Arena, before deciding to build something of her own. Her company is built around two products. Aligned Legacy measures how people think in real time and helps teams see how aware, connected, and aligned they actually are. HIKMET, or Wisdom Illuminated, keeps a company's knowledge governed and accurate so nothing walks out the door when an employee leaves. Beth and Matt get into the messy reality of being a founder. She self-funded the whole thing, learned to code her own prototype, and pitched for over a year through a pile of rejections. She also walked away from a paid pilot because the people on the other side were not aligned on ethics and accountability. Matt shares why he thinks Beth represents a new kind of founder. Sales first, build second, now that AI can help build the thing. They also dig into validating an idea, the pull you want to feel from customers, and why getting your first case studies is the hardest part. If you have ever tried to get a product to market on your own, this one is for you. ⏱️ Episode Breakdown 00:38 Introduction to Legacy Purposed and Beth Epperson 03:37 Beth's Entrepreneurial Journey and Corporate Experiences 06:37 The Birth of Legacy Purposed and Its Mission 09:52 Understanding Emotions and Accountability in the Workplace 12:35 The Development of Innovative Tools for Corporate Growth 15:38 Challenges in Building and Marketing the Software 18:28 The Importance of Case Studies and Market Validation 21:37 Future Aspirations and Closing Thoughts Links & ResourcesConnect with Beth Epperson on LinkedIn Legacy Purposed Website - https://legacypurposed.com/ Email - mailto:Beth@legacypurposed.com What Smart CTOs Are Doing Differently With Offshore Teams in 2025 Subscribe to the Global Talent Sprint Full Scale – Build your dev team quickly and affordably If you’re trying to get your team out of the basement and into real product ownership, this episode is your playbook. Stop being a ticket factory. Build teams that think, create, and lead. Follow the show, rate it, and send this to someone who’s still trying to do “real Scrum.” They need it more than you do.

  8. Jun 4

    Geothermal Energy and the Future of Data Center Power

    Data centers are multiplying fast, and the energy demands are staggering. Matt Watson sits down with Tim Tarver, founder and CEO of Exceed Geo Energy, to talk about one of the most underrated power sources in the conversation: geothermal. Tim breaks down how his company is adapting drilling technology from the oil and gas industry to generate clean, baseload energy almost anywhere in the country, why geothermal outlasts solar and wind by decades, and how it could be the right fit for the next wave of AI infrastructure. If you're watching energy costs climb and wondering where the power for all these data centers is actually going to come from, this one's worth your time. Listen now and learn why geothermal might be the energy answer nobody's talking about enough. And if you enjoyed this episode, leave us a review and subscribe so you never miss a conversation with the founders and operators building what's next. ⏱️ Episode Breakdown 00:44 Introduction to Data Centers and Energy Challenges 03:40 Geothermal Energy: A Sustainable Solution 06:33 The Role of Geothermal in Data Center Energy Needs 09:41 Entrepreneurship in Geothermal Energy 12:41 Water Usage and Cooling in Data Centers 15:40 Cost Comparison: Geothermal vs. Other Energy Sources 18:50 Technological Advances in Drilling and Geothermal Energy 21:48 Future of Geothermal Energy and Closing Thoughts Links & ResourcesConnect with Tim Tarver on LinkedIn Exceed Geo Energy - http://www.exegeoenergy.com What Smart CTOs Are Doing Differently With Offshore Teams in 2025 Subscribe to the Global Talent Sprint Full Scale – Build your dev team quickly and affordably If you’re trying to get your team out of the basement and into real product ownership, this episode is your playbook. Stop being a ticket factory. Build teams that think, create, and lead. Follow the show, rate it, and send this to someone who’s still trying to do “real Scrum.” They need it more than you do.

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About

Startup Hustle is a podcast for entrepreneurs, by entrepreneurs.  With the mission of telling the real story of startups and entrepreneurs, topics range from funding to failure and beyond.  If you want to start, own, or build a business then you're in the right place.   

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  • Creator
    Startup Hustle
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    1.4K
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2024 Startup Hustle
  • Show Website
    Startup Hustle

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