The Fork in the Road

The Authority Company
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  • Entrepreneurship
  • Updated Monthly

The Fork in the Road with Perry S. Kaufman is a show for successful founders who face many decisions and questions about pushing the business forward and how their role may need to change. Each episode focuses on moments where owners face real choices about growth, control, risk, their legacy and the life they want to live. Perry brings more than 40 years of experience guiding founder led companies through growth, complexity, risk and transition. He began his career as a CPA, then became a founder himself. Today he leads PSK Consulting, and has advised hundreds of private companies across a variety of industries in areas of finance, operations, leadership, and scale. The Fork in the Road turns Perry’s real-world experience into direct conversations about how to understand the different stages of a predictable business life cycle, strategies for each, intertwined with the founder’s personal goals. If you are approaching or already standing at a fork in the road between enjoying the status quo, scaling up, or considering an exit, this show gives you food for thought, and knowledgeable insights along with comfort that you have unique options about where to go from here.

Episodes

  1. Jun 11

    Patrick Murphy, CEO of Maket: How AI Is Changing Home Design Forever

    What happens when AI collides with one of the world’s oldest industries? In this episode of The Fork in the Road, Perry S. Kaufman sits down with Patrick Murphy, Co-Founder and CEO of Maket, an AI-powered platform transforming how homes are designed. Maket allows homeowners and builders to instantly generate and customize residential floorplans, giving everyday people access to tools that once belonged only to architects and specialists. Patrick shares the founder story behind Maket, the friction of building an AI company in a slow-moving industry, and why housing has become one of the biggest systems problems in the world. The conversation explores the future of AI-assisted architecture, affordable housing, design accessibility, and the challenge of balancing creativity with real-world practicality.With more than 900,000 registered users, Maket is quickly becoming one of the most talked-about companies at the intersection of AI, housing, and design technology. Topics discussed include: • AI-generated architecture • The future of residential design • Affordable housing and technology • Why architecture has remained inaccessible • Founder lessons from scaling an AI startup • The emotional impact of designing your own home • Technology adoption in traditional industries • How AI is changing the built environment • Product-market fit and startup growth • The future of housing infrastructure Subscribe for more conversations with founders, investors, and business leaders shaping the future. Chapters / Timestamps 00:00 Intro 01:12 Meet Patrick Murphy and Maket 03:08 The origin story behind the company 06:25 Why housing became a systems problem 09:14 What traditional architecture gets wrong 12:40 How Maket’s AI platform works 16:18 Democratizing home design 20:11 Why AI and housing move at different speeds 24:05 The emotional reaction users have to designing homes 28:16 The biggest misconceptions about AI architecture 32:47 Affordable housing and the role of technology 37:22 When Patrick realized Maket was becoming real 41:35 The challenges of scaling an AI company 46:50 Trust, regulation, and the future of housing 52:08 What most people still don’t understand about AI design 57:41 What success looks like now 01:01:20 Final thoughts

    43 min

  2. Apr 14

    From Failed Startup to $200M Company | Tejas Manohar

    What happens when your startup fails overnight?In this episode of The Fork in the Road with Perry S. Kaufman, Tejas Manohar shares how his first company collapsed during COVID… and how that failure led to building a company that has raised over $200 million. Tejas walks through his full founder journey, from teaching himself to code as a teenager to landing a job in Silicon Valley at 16, to building HighTouch, a company transforming how businesses use data and AI. You’ll hear how he: Got hired without revealing his age Found his first customers through cold outreach and online communities Pivoted after losing everything Built a product the market started pulling, not pushing Scaled from 3 founders to 350+ employees This is a real look at what building a company looks like, messy, unpredictable, and driven by persistence.If you’re a founder or thinking about starting, this episode will change how you see the journey. ⏱️ TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Welcome + Tejas intro 1:00 Early obsession with programming 2:30 Influence of immigrant parents 6:20 How he got hired at 16 (without saying his age) 10:30 Learning + dreaming at Segment 13:00 Why you don’t need a “perfect idea” 16:00 The first startup (and why it failed) 18:00 COVID wiped out the business overnight 20:00 The pivot that led to HighTouch 21:30 What HighTouch actually does (simple explanation) 24:00 Stage 1: Survival and first product 27:00 How they got their first 3 customers 30:00 Why early customers are the hardest 33:00 The moment they knew it would scale 35:00 Growth tactics: communities, content, sales 38:00 Scaling leadership from 3 people to 350 41:00 Raising $200M and investor mindset 44:00 Building a “generational company” 45:30 Advice for founders: agency, resourcefulness, curiosity

    49 min

  3. Apr 7

    Serving Up a Startup: How Volleybird Turned Pickleball Frustration into a Scalable Sports Brand

    On the premiere episode of Fork in the Road with Perry S. Kaufman, Perry sits down with Cassandra Toroian and Tracy Thomas, co-founders of VolleyBird, to explore how they built two businesses at the intersection of sports and entrepreneurship. What started as frustration over a 70-page pickleball rulebook evolved into a sports rules app powered by proprietary AI. At the same time, they launched a subscription box company serving passionate players of tennis, pickleball, padel, and golf. Every 60 days, customers receive curated gear, apparel, and sustainable products they will not find in big box stores. The conversation dives into: • Why necessity sparked their first product idea • How they pivoted their rules app from direct-to-consumer to a B2B API model • The realities of customer feedback as founders • Building a brand around sustainability and niche sports • Why working for yourself is both harder and more rewarding • What young entrepreneurs should understand before launching a business Cassandra and Tracy also share how they differentiate in crowded markets by focusing on sustainability, women-founded brands, and unique products, including eco-friendly tennis balls designed to reduce waste. If you are a founder navigating your own fork in the road, this episode offers a candid look at scaling, pivoting, and staying close to your customer while building something you truly believe in.

    36 min
  • 3 Episodes

About

The Fork in the Road with Perry S. Kaufman is a show for successful founders who face many decisions and questions about pushing the business forward and how their role may need to change. Each episode focuses on moments where owners face real choices about growth, control, risk, their legacy and the life they want to live. Perry brings more than 40 years of experience guiding founder led companies through growth, complexity, risk and transition. He began his career as a CPA, then became a founder himself. Today he leads PSK Consulting, and has advised hundreds of private companies across a variety of industries in areas of finance, operations, leadership, and scale. The Fork in the Road turns Perry’s real-world experience into direct conversations about how to understand the different stages of a predictable business life cycle, strategies for each, intertwined with the founder’s personal goals. If you are approaching or already standing at a fork in the road between enjoying the status quo, scaling up, or considering an exit, this show gives you food for thought, and knowledgeable insights along with comfort that you have unique options about where to go from here.

Information

  • Creator
    The Authority Company
  • Years Active
    2K
  • Episodes
    3
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright The Authority Company
  • Show Website
    The Fork in the Road