Founder Mode

Kevin Henrikson and Jason Shafton

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Founder Mode is a podcast for builders—whether it’s startups, systems, or personal growth. It’s about finding your flow, balancing health, wealth, and productivity, and tackling challenges with focus and curiosity. Each week, you’ll gain actionable insights and fresh perspectives to help you think like a founder and build what matters most.

vor 4 Tagen

Fake AI vs Real AI

EPISODE 63 Kevin and Jason go solo for a no-guest, no-filter breakdown of everything that happened to them in the past week. Kevin recaps the call center conference where one simple question, "What's your stack?", exposed an industry of companies bolting AI onto decades-old businesses, including one whose "AI" turned out to be an outsourced team manually shipping WAV files back and forth. From there they get to the real thesis: the money in AI isn't in building the brain (the foundation models) but in building the nervous system that wires that intelligence into unglamorous, real-world businesses. They dig into why taste and error correction are the durable moat, two practical on-ramps for any company trying to go AI-native, pointing agents directly at business KPIs, and Jason's full stack for turning client calls into interactive proposals. They close on the strange new category of "renting humans," why the marginal cost of everything is heading toward zero, and why the human premium, like live shows, real conversations, and white-glove service, only goes up from here. CHAPTERS 00:54 – "What's your stack?" The conference that exposed fake AI 04:16 – Build the nervous system, not the brain 07:24 – Why taste and error correction are the real moat 10:08 – How to go AI-native (or credibly bolt it on) 15:38 – Pointing AI agents at your KPIs 17:03 – Jason's full AI proposal stack 21:43 – Renting humans and the new AI category 23:55 – Abundance, robots, and the rising human premium 28:39 – The Founder Mode Top Five LINKS Stay Connected with Founder Mode Subscribe to our newsletter Connect with Kevin LinkedIn • X/Twitter Connect with Jason LinkedIn • X/Twitter

30 Min.
25. Juni

Be A Cockroach, Not A Unicorn with Sahib Anandsongvit

EPISODE 62 Sahib has built from zero, survived chaos, and lived to tell the unvarnished version. In this episode he traces a path from hosting Airbnb guests at his family hotel to building a multi-million-dollar services marketplace in Thailand, then pivoting through Web3 and into AI. He explains the "cockroach mindset" — why chasing unicorn status is the biggest myth and mistake a founder can make, and why the ability to get beaten to the ground and wake up to fight another day matters more than any valuation. Along the way he shares how he landed his first customers with no product (a makeup artist sourced from his girlfriend's contacts, a housekeeper in a borrowed black t-shirt), why the supply side is the hard part of any marketplace, how the company survived COVID and reached an exit on roughly $400K raised while better-funded competitors raised millions and died, and why distribution, narrative, and radical honesty about your losses are the real moats today. It's a refreshingly direct take on resilience over hype. CHAPTERS 00:00 – The unicorn myth vs. the cockroach mindset 06:12 – From hotel rooms to a services marketplace 09:04 – Landing your first ten customers with no product 12:39 – What the cockroach mindset means in practice 16:26 – Surviving COVID and reaching the exit 17:55 – The pivot into Web3 and crypto 20:25 – Why distribution, narrative, and community win now 23:04 – Being real: owning your losses, not just your wins 27:08 – The VC trap and the mismanagement of funding LINKS Connect with Sahib Website • LinkedIn • X/Twitter Stay Connected with Founder Mode Subscribe to our newsletter Connect with Kevin LinkedIn • X/Twitter Connect with Jason LinkedIn • X/Twitter

33 Min.
18. Juni

Don't Build On Rented Land with Joe Speiser

EPISODE 61 In this episode, Hampton co-founder and co-CEO Joe Speiser joins Kevin and Jason to unpack the lessons behind a career of 10-plus startups — including the one that cost him a hundred-million-dollar outcome almost overnight when Facebook changed its news feed. Joe explains why every business comes down to finding the arbitrage, why "building on rented land" without a strong brand is the trap that still keeps him up at night, and how he turned a single ICP tweak — a community built only for young, high-growth tech founders — into an entirely new business. He also opens up on the human side of running Hampton ("we just organize humans"), why he caps growth and turns away revenue to protect quality, and how he rolled AI agents out across his 25-person team after his own vibe-coded version "just sucked." The throughline: stop building outside your core competency, treat AI like your smartest friend, and bet on the arbitrage nobody else is looking at. CHAPTERS 03:36 – Find the arbitrage: why every business has one 05:16 – The $100M loss and "building on rented land" 07:52 – "We just organize humans": Hampton as a human business 09:45 – Selling betterment and keeping bad actors out 14:55 – The single ICP tweak that created a new business 18:23 – Going deep on AI agents (and why his own build failed) 22:50 – Getting non-technical teams to actually adopt AI 27:09 – The solo-founder, billion-dollar company myth LINKS Connect with Joe Speiser Hampton • LinkedIn • X/Twitter Stay Connected with Founder Mode Subscribe to our newsletter Connect with Kevin LinkedIn • X/Twitter Connect with Jason LinkedIn • X/Twitter

31 Min.
11. Juni

Best of Founder Mode III

EPISODE 60 In this Best Of compilation, Kevin and Jason revisit the standout moments from the last 20 or so episodes of Founder Mode and surface a clear pattern: the founders breaking through aren't chasing the shiny new thing, they're doubling down on fundamentals like trust, services, and picking up the phone, then using AI to do more of it. From Jay reframing how ketamine works in modern mental health care, to Jason Fried's 26-year run of profitability without a board seat, to Jose building a business by cold-calling his Carnegie Mellon alumni network, to Brent calling the next 12 months a land grab on LLM-driven discovery, to Eric Ries naming the force he spent his career fighting in Incorruptible, this batch of conversations makes the case that AI didn't replace the work, it just made it harder for the people doing it to hide. If you've been feeling like the playbook flipped upside down this year, this episode is the reset. CHAPTERS 00:00 – Welcome Back and Why This Best Of Hits Different 00:29 – Mental Health, Ketamine, and the Window of Opportunity 02:18 – Jason Fried on 26 Years of Profitability Without a Board 05:41 – Vertical AI for Couples and Where Generic AI Fails 07:05 – Bring Back Blackberry and Validating With a Landing Page 08:23 – Where Engineering Knowledge Actually Lives 11:28 – Treat AI Like an Intern, Not an Employee 14:04 – Building an Orchestrated Team of AI Agents 15:45 – Co-Pilot vs. Autopilot and the Trust Line 18:20 – The 90-Day Myth and the Chocolate Milk Signal 20:08 – How Jose Got His First 10 Customers 21:39 – The LLM and Reddit Land Grab 23:05 – Eric Ries on Incorruptible 24:11 – Why Services Revenue Is a Positive Signal 25:40 – The Pattern Across 20 Episodes LINKS Stay Connected with Founder Mode Subscribe to our newsletter Connect with Kevin LinkedIn • X/Twitter Connect with Jason LinkedIn • X/Twitter

26 Min.
4. Juni

AI Can't Explain What It Did with Scott Francis

EPISODE 59 Scott Francis spent nearly two decades building BP3 across mobile, cloud, automation, and now AI before stepping back to help other founders navigate the same path. In this episode, Scott unpacks why process outlasts every tech wave, even at companies like Google, and breaks down the "Turing Trap" that's fooling founders who mistake fluent AI output for actual understanding. He shares why the rebranded "forward deployed engineer" matters more than ever, why services can be a positive signal for transformative tech, and how to hire multipliers instead of black holes in the AI era. Plus, the $25K test that separates real deals from time-wasters, and what founders need to know before selling to private equity. CHAPTERS 00:00 – Cold Open: The Turing Trap 00:41 – Intro: Building Companies That Last 03:31 – Welcome Scott Francis 04:25 – Why Process Outlasts Every Tech Cycle 06:16 – Even Google Has Process Problems 09:02 – Signals It's Time to Step Away 11:05 – The Turing Trap and AI Estimation 17:35 – The Forward Deployed Engineer Rebrand 20:16 – Hiring Multipliers in the AI Era 21:30 – Why Services Is a Positive Signal 24:02 – The $25K Test for Real Deals 28:42 – What Founders Should Pay Attention To 32:07 – Advising Founders and PE Debt Overhang 35:56 – Founder Mode Top Five LINKS Connect with Scott Francis Westslope Advisors • LinkedIn • Substack Stay Connected with Founder Mode Subscribe to our newsletter Connect with Kevin LinkedIn • X/Twitter Connect with Jason LinkedIn • X/Twitter

39 Min.
28. Mai

How To Be Incorruptible with Eric Ries

EPISODE 58 Eric Ries, creator of the Lean Startup methodology and author of the new book Incorruptible, joins Kevin and Jason for a conversation about what happens after a company starts working — and why success makes you a target, not safer. Eric explains why 80% of founders are no longer CEO three years after IPO, walks through the Saul Price story behind FedMart and Costco as a real A/B test in business history, and unpacks his formula of ethos plus integrity for building companies that survive their own success. He shares the inside story of helping Anthropic set up its governance structure, why standard "best practices" are often value-destroying, and gives founders tactical moves they can make from day one — from choosing their fiduciary commitments to defending against financial gravity. A sharp, sometimes uncomfortable look at why so many great companies drift away from what made them special, and how a few exceptions manage not to. CHAPTERS 00:00 – Cold open: Success makes you a target 02:49 – Jason's startup corruption story 05:18 – The founder's wake and the 80% statistic 09:40 – Why "corruption" is the right word 16:01 – Companies as superorganisms: you don't own what you birth 18:38 – The legend of Sol Price, FedMart, and Costco 25:52 – The formula: ethos plus integrity 28:30 – Tactical moves for early-stage founders 34:34 – Anthropic, the Pentagon, and the $200M decision 38:29 – What Eric used to believe that he no longer believes 40:59 – Where to find Eric and the book LINKS Connect with Eric Ries incorruptible.co • LinkedIn • X/Twitter Stay Connected with Founder Mode Subscribe to our newsletter Connect with Kevin LinkedIn • X/Twitter Connect with Jason LinkedIn • X/Twitter

44 Min.
21. Mai

Why AI Loves Reddit Most with Brent Csutoras

EPISODE 57 Brent Csutoras has spent nearly two decades inside Reddit, Digg, and the message-board underbelly of the internet - and he joins Kevin and Jason to explain why the human voice is now the most valuable thing in marketing. Brent breaks down why Reddit shows up everywhere in AI answers, the biggest mistakes brands make when they enter online communities, and how his team flipped Asurion from a toxic, "scam"-labeled brand into one that controls its narrative across every LLM. He shares the TikTok campaign that pulled in 300 death threats in 30 minutes (and still won the room), why owning the small negatives gives you control of the big ones, and why the next 12 months are a Reddit-and-AI land grab on the scale of short domains and links 20 years ago. If your brand is afraid to show up in the rooms where customers are actually talking, this episode is for you. CHAPTERS 00:00 - The next 12 months is the land grab 00:45 - Marketing in a world where attention is harder to earn 04:01 - Welcome Brent: two decades inside the most misunderstood platform 06:39 - The biggest mistake brands make on Reddit 09:18 - How to reverse a toxic community (TikTok and Asurion) 13:15 - Why Reddit shows up everywhere in AI answers 17:40 - Stop selling features, start solving the real problem 21:24 - What every marketer should stop doing immediately 25:10 - The Reddit land grab and the brands sleeping on it 26:18 - The Asurion turnaround: owning the negative 31:02 - How to show up in AI answers beyond Reddit LINKS Connect with Brent Csutoras OGS Media • LinkedIn Stay Connected with Founder Mode Subscribe to our newsletter Connect with Kevin LinkedIn • X/Twitter Connect with Jason LinkedIn • X/Twitter

36 Min.
14. Mai

Hire Attitude, Not Experience with Jose Li

EPISODE 56 Jose Li, founder and CEO of 71lbs, joins Kevin and Jason to break down how he turned a frustration most companies tolerate, opaque and overcharged shipping invoices, into a 14-year-old business that has saved 5,000 customers more than $80 million. After running FedEx's retail and e-commerce practice, Jose left to tackle the two biggest pain points companies face with carriers: saving money and understanding what they're actually paying. He explains the little-known money-back guarantee policy that leaves $2 billion unclaimed every year, how COVID nearly killed the business and forced a pivot into contract negotiations (now 50%+ of revenue), and why trade shows and in-house cold calling still outperform almost everything else. Jose also shares his vision for layering weather and third-party data on top of shipping decisions, the hiring mistakes that taught him perfect FedEx résumés don't translate, and the chip on his shoulder from 800+ investor rejections that still fuels him today. CHAPTERS 00:00 / Cold Open: $2 Billion in Unclaimed Refunds 03:30 / Meet Jose Li, Founder of 71lbs 03:43 / Spotting the Gap: Two Pain Points Nobody Was Solving 07:14 / From an IP Address to a Real Business 08:30 / The Money-Back Guarantee Most Companies Don't Know About 11:50 / How COVID Almost Killed the Business 12:58 / AI, Weather Data, and the Future of Shipping Decisions 15:10 / Getting the First 10 Customers and Building a Sales Machine 23:52 / Why Trade Shows Are Still the Best Channel 26:47 / The Chip on the Shoulder That Keeps Him Going 30:16 / Founder Mode Top 5 Takeaways LINKS Connect with Jose Li 71lbs.com • LinkedIn • X/Twitter Stay Connected with Founder Mode Stay Connected with Founder Mode Subscribe to our newsletter Connect with Kevin LinkedIn • X/Twitter Connect with Jason LinkedIn • X/Twitter

32 Min.

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Founder Mode is a podcast for builders—whether it’s startups, systems, or personal growth. It’s about finding your flow, balancing health, wealth, and productivity, and tackling challenges with focus and curiosity. Each week, you’ll gain actionable insights and fresh perspectives to help you think like a founder and build what matters most.

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Kevin Henrikson and Jason Shafton
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2025 - 2026
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