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Dave Berner

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Building a company is hard. We share real, grounded conversations with people doing just that. From solo devs to venture-backed founders. Hosted by Dave Berner (co-founder of Kinde), this podcast skips the playbook talk and gets into what building actually looks like day to day.

09/23/2025

Why ChatGPT ignores you (and how to fix it)

Kai Forsyth is the founder of Hall, a platform that monitors and optimizes how businesses appear in AI search results across ChatGPT, Claude, and other conversational AI platforms. After working as a product designer at Atlassian, Intercom, and Dovetail, Kai recognized that traditional SEO was being disrupted by AI-powered search. His team made a critical pivot from building community visibility tools to focusing entirely on AI visibility - a decision that transformed their trajectory and time-to-value from months to minutes. When Google traffic to Kinde suddenly vanished, Dave assumed it was an algorithm change. Turns out, the entire game had shifted - people were searching through ChatGPT instead. In this episode, Kai Forsyth reveals how his team pivoted from building community tools to helping businesses survive the AI search revolution. He explains: ⬛ Why Reddit and Wikipedia matter more than your company blog for AI visibility ⬛ How to get from idea to paying customers in 2 months with a team of 3 ⬛ Why building a "sticky" product in 6 months is impossible ⬛ The counterintuitive approach to support - use engineers ⬛ How engineering can drive growth beyond just building core features ⬛ Why comparison content and listicles are "cringe but crucial" for AI discovery 00:00:00 - Intro 00:00:35 - SEO is dead, AI visibility is everything 00:01:34 - How AI search is disrupting traditional SEO 00:04:44 - Reddit suddenly controls your visibility 00:07:13 - The Reddit moderation nightmare for founders 00:10:14 - From community platform to AI visibility: the pivot story 00:12:15 - Why reviews and comparison pages drive AI citations 00:16:10 - Building the MVP in 2 months with 2 engineers 00:20:00 - The agency model: 1 customer becomes 20 00:24:10 - Time to value: from months to minutes 00:27:59 - First customers through targeted LinkedIn outreach 00:31:45 - 20% reply rate: the simple offer that works 00:35:39 - Why no product is sticky if built in 6 months 00:42:47 - Engineering velocity beats product differentiation 00:47:20 - Build free tools for distribution, not just features 00:53:20 - Staying sane in the AI hype cycle 00:58:57 - Balancing founder-led content with product building 01:02:07 - Your baseline AI visibility strategy 01:05:28 - Bonobo and the perfect focus music 01:13:44 - Connect with Kai and try Hall Follow Kai Forsyth LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaiforsyth/ Website: https://usehall.com/ More Founders Show LinkedIn: /more-founders-show YouTube: @morefoundersshow Website: https://morefounders.show Follow Dave LinkedIn: /daveberner X: @dave_or_dead YouTube: @daveordead Website: https://daveberner.me Sponsors Kinde: https://kinde.com

1h 15m
09/17/2025

Left school at 14, now he's bootstrapping enterprise software!

Stephen Dale was handed a "fire warden jacket" and a broken spreadsheet at a UAE startup, tasked with managing vendors spending nearly $1 million annually. Instead of accepting expensive enterprise solutions, he built his own and discovered the massive gap between what startups need and what the market offers. Stephen is the co-founder of Vendor App, a vendor management platform designed specifically for startups and SMBs. After experiencing firsthand the pain of managing vendors through spreadsheets while working at a rapidly growing startup in the UAE, he identified a clear market need: enterprise vendor management systems were too complex and expensive (some costing $1M+ annually), while startups were stuck with broken spreadsheets and missed renewals. Vendor App solves this with one-click compliance checks, automated contract management, and pricing that actually makes sense for growing companies. Currently bootstrapping from the Philippines, Stephen and his team are building the vendor management tool that startups actually want to use. He explains: ⬛ Why bootstrapping forced better decisions: ⬛ The hidden cost of vendor mismanagement: ⬛ How to know when to stop adding features ⬛ Why grit is more important than education for founders ⬛ The unexpected places founder insights come from Follow Stephen Dale LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephen-dale-3a819840/ Website: https://www.vendorapp.co/ More Founders Show LinkedIn: /more-founders-show YouTube: @morefoundersshow Website: https://morefounders.show Follow Dave LinkedIn: /daveberner X: @dave_or_dead YouTube: @daveordead Website: https://daveberner.me Sponsors Kinde: https://kinde.com

1h 18m
09/10/2025

Why the education system wasn't ready for AI & how I pivoted to consulting

Ikum Kandola wanted to quit just a few months ago. After his first startup Teachify hit the brutal reality of the education market's resistance to AI, he pivoted hard into consulting, a space where AI actually drives revenue. Now TheAx.ai is helping smaller consultancies compete with the Big Four by productizing their knowledge through AI. Ikum is co-founder of TheAx.ai, an AI-powered consulting platform that turns traditional time-based consultancies into outcome-based businesses. A computer science graduate who worked at PwC while launching his first venture at university, Ikum brings both technical depth and hard-won startup experience. TheAx has grown to 15 customers and £4k MRR after bootstrapping their MVP from a two-week pilot project that proved the concept. He explains: ⬛ Why "build it and they will come" is complete BS (even with a great product) ⬛ How a two-week consulting gig became the foundation for a platform play ⬛ Why he does 10 hours of dev work per week max (hint: sales is everything) ⬛ The data-backed presentation that saved his startup from co-founder conflict ⬛ How to leverage your co-founders' networks instead of cold outreach ⬛ Why building public gets you builders, not customers Follow Ikum Kandola LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ikum Website: https://theax.ai More Founders Show LinkedIn: /more-founders-show YouTube: @morefoundersshow Website: https://morefounders.show Follow Dave LinkedIn: /daveberner X: @dave_or_dead YouTube: @daveordead Website: https://daveberner.me Sponsors Kinde: https://kinde.com

1h 6m
09/02/2025

Why this startup said no to the world's biggest mining company (and won)

David Press was down to his last $7,000 with payroll due when a critical enterprise deal saved Risk Talk from collapse. After years of grinding through COVID lockdowns and cancelled flights, he and co-founder Stuart Farquharson built a voice-first safety reporting tool that now serves three of the world's five largest mining companies. David is the technical co-founder of Risk Talk, a platform that makes safety reporting accessible for frontline workers through voice technology to solve a problem they heard directly from workers: "Why can't I just talk about it instead of filling out these shit forms?" Risk Talk achieves 97% transcription accuracy even in the loudest industrial environments and has grown to serve companies with 60,000+ employees globally. He explains: ⬛ Why saying "no" to the world's biggest mining company over a feature request was their smartest product decision ⬛ How their MVP mantra "would Frankie use it?" shaped every design choice ⬛ Why they refuse to add "just one more question" - even if it costs them deals ⬛ How a single TikTok post generated leads from $40B companies ⬛ Being prepared to drive Uber with enterprise deals pending ⬛ Why building i18n from day one enabled their international expansion Follow David Press LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-press-0020a516/ RiskTalk: https://risktalk.com.au/ More Founders Show LinkedIn: /more-founders-show YouTube: @morefoundersshow Website: https://morefounders.show Follow Dave LinkedIn: /daveberner X: @dave_or_dead YouTube: @daveordead Website: https://daveberner.me Sponsors Kinde: https://kinde.com

1h 18m
09/02/2025

Revenue day 1: Excel sheet to $1M (solo founder story)

Former HR executive and psychology lecturer Nikki Tugano reveals how she transformed being fired into building a profitable SaaS company, starting with just an Excel spreadsheet and bootstrapping to $1M in funding. Nikki is the founder and CEO of SeenCulture, a people analytics platform that identifies untapped talent within organizations. With a decade of leadership experience across Australia and the UK, plus a background teaching positive psychology at the University of Melbourne, she brought deep domain expertise to the startup world. When her employer dismissed her for championing a product vision too forcefully, she proved them wrong by building it herself. Starting with Excel and bootstrapping to revenue on day one, she now serves companies like Lassonde and CultureAmp. She explains: ⬛ How getting fired became the catalyst for founding her company ⬛ Why starting with Excel was actually a strategic advantage ⬛ How 88 employees sent 900+ invites without being asked to ⬛ The reality of raising capital without a "friends and family" network ⬛ Why her domain expertise matters more than technical skills Follow Nikki LinkedIn: /nikkitugano Website: https://seenculture.com/ More Founders Show LinkedIn: /more-founders-show YouTube: @morefoundersshow Website: https://morefounders.show Follow Dave LinkedIn: /daveberner X: @dave_or_dead YouTube: @daveordead Website: https://daveberner.me Sponsors Kinde: https://kinde.com

1h 3m

5 Episodes

Building a company is hard. We share real, grounded conversations with people doing just that. From solo devs to venture-backed founders. Hosted by Dave Berner (co-founder of Kinde), this podcast skips the playbook talk and gets into what building actually looks like day to day.

Creator

Dave Berner
Years Active

2K
Episodes

5
Rating

Explicit
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© 2025 Dave Berner
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