Code Story | Startup Podcast for CTOs, CEOs and Technical Founders

Noah Labhart | Technical Founder & Startup Mentor
  • 5.0 (213)
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Updated Weekly

Code Story is a startup podcast for technical founders building and scaling software products. Each episode features SaaS founders, engineers, and product leaders sharing how they built their product, found product market fit, and navigated early-stage growth. We explore: Early engineering decisions and MVP developmentLanding the first customersPricing and go-to-market experimentsScaling challenges and infrastructure bottlenecksHiring the first teamLessons learned from growing a startup From first commit to first scale, Code Story focuses on the critical transition from building software to building a scalable business. If you’re a founder, engineer, or product leader interested in SaaS, startups, and scaling technology companies, this podcast breaks down how great products are built — and how they grow.

  1. 1d ago ·  Bonus

    S12 Bonus: Rickard's Deterministic Return: Converting Scattered Data into Autonomous, Production-Grade Apps with Rickard Hansson, Founder & CEO of Gainable

    We have a special return episode, by our good friend Rickard Hansson. Rickard joined us previously on the podcast in Season 8 to tell the creation story of Weavy - collaboration infrastructure for serious builds. Today, he makes a follow up visit to tell us all about Gainable, his new project - which removes data and engineering from being the middle man, and enables your team to build the apps they need now. Questions; Last time we talked in Season 8, you were building Weavy. Whats happened since we last talked with that company?Tell me about Gainable - give me the pitch there, and tell me why this is the right approach to using AI.Most AI builders wire straight to a frontier model and wait for the next release to fix the gaps. I didn't. Where does the model actually sit in Gainable product, and why only there?Why is an app factory that is deterministic important? Dig into that.You use the term "free-range coding".. what does this mean? Unpack the phrase for us.You point out that tokens still appear to be heavily subsidized to me. What do you mean by that, and what happens to all these AI products when that ends?We've all read the headlines - Fable 5 got switched off by the government for 18 days. Why do you see this as a turning point, not a footnote?You suspect flat subscriptions for the top models are done, and it all drifts to credit-based. What signal are you seeing that tell s you this?If the model is a commodity everyone rents, where's the moat?What is next for Gainable, and how can someone get started using the platform?Sponsors UnblockedTECH DomainsMezmoBraingrid.aiLinks https://www.gainable.dev/https://www.weavy.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickardh/https://codestory.co/podcast/bonus-rickard-hansson-weavy/ Checkout our episode stacks on Stacklist! https://stacks.codestory.co/ Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

    S12 Bonus: Rickard's Deterministic Return: Converting Scattered Data into Autonomous, Production-Grade Apps with Rickard Hansson, Founder & CEO of Gainable

  2. 1d ago

    Introducing Working Smarter from Dropbox

    The Working Smarter podcast from Dropbox is a show about AI in the modern workplace. It is a great show for our listeners who want to go deeper and hear from the engineers who are actually building cutting edge AI software. We hope you enjoy!

    Introducing Working Smarter from Dropbox

  3. 3d ago

    S12 E30: Wastewater Guardians: Automating Biology to Protect Clean Water with Virginia Szepietowski, Co-Founder of Nyad AI

    Virginia Szepietowski grew up in the UK outside of London, and now lives in Alabama. She's had a winding path to her current venture, including body building, triathlons, law, and entrepreneurship. She comes from a family of entrepreneurs, who are deeply ambitious, tenacious, and deeply humble. She finds the feeling of a deep safety net from her family, and she pursues her adventures. Outside of tech, she is married to her now co-founder. She is still a competitive body builder, and likes to push herself to the limit. Through a series of life events, Virginia got interested in water treatment. She started discovering the world of wastewater operators, and the fact that they were the last line of defense before toxic wastewater moved into our waterways (rivers and such). Using AI, her and her team started to build a platform for these operators to quickly detect organisms in these water streams. This is the creation story of Nyad AI. Sponsors UnblockedTECH DomainsMezmoBraingrid.aiLinks https://nyad.ai/https://www.linkedin.com/in/virginia-szepietowski/ Timestamps 0:00 Intro and episode teaser on automating biology in critical clean water infrastructure 1:49 Guest introduction: Virginia Szepietowski's background and path to founding Nyad AI 2:45 Understanding the hidden biology behind municipal and industrial wastewater treatment 4:10 The core problem: Why manual microscope sampling creates dangerous operational blind spots 6:05 Origin story: Translating computer vision research into industrial water automation 8:30 How Nyad AI's automated hardware samples and analyzes live microorganisms in real time 11:15 Overcoming physical hardware engineering hurdles in harsh, high-humidity environments 14:00 Preventing biological plant crashes and saving millions in compliance penalties 17:30 Addressing the labor shortage: Supporting the next generation of water operators with AI 21:00 Scaling AI hardware deployments across municipal and industrial facilities 24:15 The future of automated biology in global water security and environmental protection 27:00 Closing thoughts and how to connect with Virginia Szepietowski and Nyad AI Checkout our episode stacks on Stacklist! https://stacks.codestory.co/ Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

    S12 E30: Wastewater Guardians: Automating Biology to Protect Clean Water with Virginia Szepietowski, Co-Founder of Nyad AI

  4. Jul 30 ·  Bonus

    S12 Bonus: The App-Aware Illusion: Why Infinite Compute Fails Without Underlying Infrastructure Accountability and the Case for "Boring" IT with Richard Luna, President & Founder of Protected Harbor

    Richard Luna grew up in New York, never living more than 35 from where he grew up. He is a self proclaimed super nerd, and has been one since he was 13 - at which point, he started coding on an HP calculator. He's always been fascinated to know how things work, and how patterns repeat - which he has observed in the industry throughout the years. Outside of tech, he has 2 kids, one of which is in the business with him. He's an avid cyclist, traveling on average, 120 miles a week. Richard has been a life long technologist, doing everything from desktops, to coding, to hosting. When he and his team saw the limits of what hosting can do, they dove into developer operations (DevOps), and found where they could add the most value - through SaaS infrastructure. This is the creation story of Protected Harbor. Sponsors UnblockedTECH DomainsMezmoBraingrid.aiLinks https://protectedharbor.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardluna/ Timestamps 0:01 Teaser on solving complex database report bottlenecks beyond standard SQL servers 0:47 Show intro and setting the stage for application-aware infrastructure 1:32 Host intro: How Richard Luna established application-aware infrastructure 1:49 Guest introduction: Richard Luna's background, coding at age 13, and cycling 120 miles a week 2:21 The career path from desktops, coding, and traditional web hosting to DevOps and SaaS infrastructure 2:41 Origin story: The creation of Protected Harbor 2:48 Defining application-aware infrastructure and why traditional hosting reaches a hard ceiling 4:10 Why "infinite compute" fails when underlying database architecture and queries are broken 6:05 Moving beyond basic server ping tests to deep application transaction monitoring 8:30 The case for "boring" IT: Prioritizing stability, predictability, and uptime over hype 11:15 Strategic trade-offs in hybrid cloud setup and managing hardware accountability 14:00 Aligning MSP incentives with client business outcomes and application performance 17:30 Common pitfalls in legacy system cloud migrations 21:00 The role of operational discipline in modern cybersecurity and IT governance 27:00 Where managed infrastructure services are heading and closing thoughts Checkout our episode stacks on Stacklist! https://stacks.codestory.co/ Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

    S12 Bonus: The App-Aware Illusion: Why Infinite Compute Fails Without Underlying Infrastructure Accountability and the Case for "Boring" IT with Richard Luna, President & Founder of Protected Harbor

  5. Jul 28

    S12 E29: Fractional Talent: Traditional Freelance Marketplaces Fail Enterprise Workflows and the Shift Toward Managed Engineering Teams with Danny Gal, Co-Founder & CEO of Proteams

    Danny Gal was born and raised in the UK, and now lives outside of London. He attended University in Nottingham... yep, the same one from Robin Hood. He LOVES challenges, and not just any challenges - the hard ones. He is done Iron Man competitions, ultra marathons, climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, and jumped out of a perfectly good plane, to name a few. He loves doing them once... and then never again. He's got 2 small kids, and believes in work hard, play hard. Danny has worked in many roles in the past, across enterprises and the like. What he found most difficult was scaling himself. He got to talking with his now co-founder about building something around the idea of scaling oneself, and took it to some businesses to validate it. Once he saw them get excited about it, he figured they were onto something. This is the creation story of Proteams. Sponsors UnblockedTECH DomainsMezmoBraingrid.aiLinks https://proteams.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/dannygal/ Timestamps 1:49 Guest introduction: Danny Gal's background, endurance challenges, and career journey 2:50 The core problem: Why traditional freelance marketplaces fail enterprise workflows 4:10 Origin story: Solving the bottleneck of "scaling oneself" in leadership 5:45 Validating the managed fractional team model with early enterprise clients 7:20 Self-serve bidding vs. managed delivery teams: Understanding the structural shift 9:30 Building a software-enabled harness for global engineering talent 12:15 How Chief Procurement Officers should structure external workforce strategies 15:00 Overcoming compliance, IP, and security hurdles in enterprise talent integration 18:10 Balancing speed, quality, and accountability in remote team management 20:30 Closing thoughts and where to connect with Danny Gal and Proteams Checkout our episode stacks on Stacklist! https://stacks.codestory.co/ Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

    S12 E29: Fractional Talent: Traditional Freelance Marketplaces Fail Enterprise Workflows and the Shift Toward Managed Engineering Teams with Danny Gal, Co-Founder & CEO of Proteams

  6. Jul 23 ·  Bonus

    S12 Bonus: The Perishable Supply Chain Crisis: Why Generic ERPs Fail Fresh Food Logistics and How AI Agents Are Transforming Error-Free Order Intake with Sid Dixit, Chief Technology Officer at iTradeNetwork

    Sid Dixit is originally from central India, and came to the states for college. He is a technologist and builder at heart, serving in leadership roles across major companies. He has built and managed a fleet of satellites, built robots at Amazon, worked at Microsoft on surface tablets, and finally, at Google working on Android. Outside of tech in lives in the Bay Area with his wife and kids. He loves water sports, especially sailing. He spent 10 years in San Diego, and stumbled on the sport. Sid's current company started in 1999, and was acquired in 2010. A few years ago, Sid joined the company, at a time when the company was wanting to rebuild its network from the ground up - starting with a powerful index. This is Sid's creation story at iTradeNetwork. Sponsors UnblockedTECH DomainsMezmoBraingrid.aiLinks https://www.itradenetwork.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/siddharthdixit/ Timestamps 1:49 Guest introduction: Sid Dixit's career background across satellites, Amazon, and Google 2:42 Overview of iTradeNetwork and its reach across North America's perishable supply chain 4:04 The origin story of iTradeNetwork and why generic ERPs fail fresh food logistics 5:45 Upgrading legacy software from Systems of Record to Systems of Intelligence 6:37 The role of specialized AI agents: Forecasting, pricing, RFQs, and negotiations 7:23 Solving outdated market data: Building a real-time produce commodity index 8:55 Strategic MVP trade-offs: Narrowing focus to key commodities like strawberries and apples 10:19 Using AI to harmonize unstructured vendor product descriptions 15:00 Streamlining complex order intake workflows across buyers and sellers 22:00 Quantifying the macroeconomic impact of supply chain speed on global food waste 28:00 Future vision for AI agents in global supply chain management 31:30 Closing thoughts and where to learn more about iTradeNetwork Checkout our episode stacks on Stacklist! https://stacks.codestory.co/ Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

    S12 Bonus: The Perishable Supply Chain Crisis: Why Generic ERPs Fail Fresh Food Logistics and How AI Agents Are Transforming Error-Free Order Intake with Sid Dixit, Chief Technology Officer at iTradeNetwork

  7. Jul 21

    S12 E28: The AI Throughput Illusion: Why Splurging on Expensive Models Fails to Ship Code and How to Measure Real Engineering Output with Emilie Schario, Co-Founder & Head of Product & Engineering at Kilo Code

    Emilie Schario grew up in New Jersey, outside of Newark, and attended college in the state. Currently, she lives in Columbus, Georgia, outside of Atlanta. She mentions she got into technology so she could easily follow her husband's career geographically, and has much success in the industry. Outside of tech, she is married with 3 boys (all 5 and under)... so there is a lot of wrestling in her household. She admits she is often quoted staying she does three things in her life - work, parenting, and if she is lucky, attends CrossFit 3 times a week. In fact, she finds a great sense of community in that world, and brings her kids with her to cheer her on. A year and a half ago, Emilie's current venture was started, to build the open source orchestrator (or "harness") for AI coding agents. Through some shuffle in the early team, Emilie joined and started in building the fastest AI coding app on the market. This is the creation story of Kilo. Sponsors UnblockedTECH DomainsMezmoBraingrid.aiLinks https://kilo.ai/https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilieschario/ Timestamps 1:49 Guest introduction: Emilie Schario's background and career journey 2:51 Overview of Kilo Code as an open source agentic engineering harness 3:14 Differentiating through model freedom and supporting 500 plus AI models 3:58 Kilo Code founding story with Sid Sijbrandij and team history 4:42 Defining the evolving MVP for AI coding tools in a fast-moving market 5:25 The rapid shift from manual prompt engineering to autonomous loops 6:19 Trade-offs and resource allocation: Deprecating the Kilo App Builder 9:09 Modern AI product management: Why multi-year roadmaps no longer work 10:19 Shifting PM responsibilities from tracking engineers to setting context 13:00 The AI throughput illusion: Why expensive models don't equal shipped code 17:00 Measuring true engineering output and productivity in the AI era 21:00 Building resilient engineering cultures around AI coding platforms 23:30 Closing thoughts and where to learn more about Kilo Code Checkout our episode stacks on Stacklist! https://stacks.codestory.co/ Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

    S12 E28: The AI Throughput Illusion: Why Splurging on Expensive Models Fails to Ship Code and How to Measure Real Engineering Output with Emilie Schario, Co-Founder & Head of Product & Engineering at Kilo Code

  8. Jul 16 ·  Bonus

    S12 Bonus: The Dashboard Mirage: Why Aggregate Metrics Hide Revenue Leaks and the Rise of Autonomous, Agentic Analytics with Bhaskar Sunkara, Founder & CEO of Bicycle AI

    Bhaskar Sunkara grew up in Delhi, India, and moved to the states when he started working. He has lived in San Fransisco for several decades now, and has spent a lot of his professional life building systems (infrastructure, observability and now, analytics). His prior startup, AppDynamics, was eventually acquired by Cisco. In general, he stays curious about how things work, and likes to deconstruct systems to figure out how they work. Outside of tech, he is a big sports fan, enjoying football, baseball, cricket and basketball. In fact, he grew up watching Michael Jordan and the bulls. Bhaskar noticed that business teams were drowning in dashboards, and as such, were not sure how to take the next steps in the business. He and his team realized that what people needed was not a retroactive view, but a proactive one - something more akin to a 24x7 analyst. This is the creation story of Bicycle AI. Sponsors UnblockedTECH DomainsMezmoBraingrid.aiLinks https://bicycle.ai/https://www.linkedin.com/in/bhaskarsunkara/ Timestamps 0:00 Intro and episode teaser on the limits of manual KPI monitoring 1:49 Guest introduction: Bhaskar Sunkara's background and AppDynamics experience 2:50 The core problem: Why revenue teams are drowning in dashboards 3:53 Origin story: Shifting from reactive dashboards to proactive AI analysts 4:36 Identifying target transactional verticals in retail, travel, and payments 6:02 Building the MVP: The 1-year journey and defining core capabilities 7:06 The three MVP pillars: Data connection, KPI definition, and dimensional search 8:33 Strategic trade-offs: Choosing vertical focus over generic horizontal BI 10:00 Harnessing LLMs and agentic AI for root-cause context 15:00 Establishing single-source-of-truth KPI definitions across departments 20:00 How AI agents integrate into existing enterprise data stacks 25:00 The future of autonomous analytics and proactive decision-making Checkout our episode stacks on Stacklist! https://stacks.codestory.co/ Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

    S12 Bonus: The Dashboard Mirage: Why Aggregate Metrics Hide Revenue Leaks and the Rise of Autonomous, Agentic Analytics with Bhaskar Sunkara, Founder & CEO of Bicycle AI
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Code Story is a startup podcast for technical founders building and scaling software products. Each episode features SaaS founders, engineers, and product leaders sharing how they built their product, found product market fit, and navigated early-stage growth. We explore: Early engineering decisions and MVP developmentLanding the first customersPricing and go-to-market experimentsScaling challenges and infrastructure bottlenecksHiring the first teamLessons learned from growing a startup From first commit to first scale, Code Story focuses on the critical transition from building software to building a scalable business. If you’re a founder, engineer, or product leader interested in SaaS, startups, and scaling technology companies, this podcast breaks down how great products are built — and how they grow.

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