Founder Fires

Iggy
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Updated Weekly

Founder Fires is for the builders, the risk-takers, and the ones figuring it out as they go. Hosted by Iggy Odighizuwa, this podcast is raw, real, and all about what it takes to build something big. There is no fluff, just straight-up lessons from the trenches, personal stories, hard truths, and conversations with other founders who are eating glass and still showing up. Whether knee-deep in your startup or still dreaming from the sidelines, this is your spot to learn, get inspired, and stay grounded in the chaos. Let's build, fire and all.

  1. May 27

    Damani fired his sales team, and his AI closed $80K

    Damani fired his entire sales team in 2024. Two months later, he was back to six-figure months as a team of one. This conversation pulls back the curtain on how a drum coach went from selling $20/month memberships to closing $80K months with zero salespeople on payroll.  You'll hear the exact moment he realized his sales team was the bottleneck, not the solution, and why most founders are funding the wrong side of their business.  He breaks down the pricing pivot that 15x'd his revenue per customer overnight, and the AI workflow that now runs his entire pipeline while he sleeps.  If you're still hiring setters, closers, or VAs to patch leaks in a broken system, this episode will save you six figures and eighteen months of pain. If you're still bleeding revenue on a sales team that can't close consistently, stop.  Watch this all the way through, then check the link below to see how Charlie can run your pipeline the same way it runs his.  The founders who move first are the ones eating in 2026.

    51 min

  2. May 26

    SalesCon 2026: How I Did $2.7M with Zero Setters?

    I was leaking $620,000 a month out of my sales pipeline and had no idea. I gave this keynote at SalesCon this year and broke down the film I finally sat down and watched on my own business.  The 5  places revenue was hemorrhaging out of my pipeline every single day. The three lies I believed about AI that kept me stuck for years. And the simple math that proved my sales team wasn't the problem. My system was. This is the exact breakdown that took one of our brands from $2.2M in all of 2025 to $2.7M in the first 3.5 months of 2026. Same offer. Same market. Zero human appointment setters. If you've ever felt like you're leaving money on the table or like scaling what you're doing is going to burn you out, this one's for you. The 5 revenue leaks costing high-ticket businesses six figures a month The back of napkin math to calculate your own pipeline leak in under 60 seconds The three lies about AI I had to kill before I could scale The Buyer IQ framework that weeded 91% of bad fit leads off my calendar  The five agent architecture I run across every business I build How we went from 2 closers to 8 and did $2.7M in cash collected without a single human setter? If 80% of your sales process depends on humans, you're losing money you don't have to lose. Stop pouring water into a leaky bucket.  Book a no-pressure demo with my team to see if Charlie is a fit for your business: https://demo.ai-setters.com/optin---lead-management  Earn a damn good living. Leverage AI. Have business on your terms.

    43 min

  3. May 5

    Our AI Setter Produced $1,105,680 In Cash Collected From Sets Closed

    $165K a month to $1.1M cash collected. Same business. Same offer. One playbook. In this episode, I break down the exact system we used to 7x a portfolio company's monthly cash collected in under 90 days. Not revenue.  Not pipeline. Cash in the bank. We spent $160K on ads to collect $1.1M, a near 10x return on cash that most founders chase for years and never hit.  You'll see why revenue ROAS is a vanity metric, why scaling from $1M to $2M overnight is the fastest way to sabotage everything you just built, and the four-stage optimization sequence we run before we ever touch the scale button. I walk through the AI lead management playbook we deploy across the sales pipeline, the 8-figure optimization framework (audience verification, message optimization, conversion optimization, scale), and the altitude sickness problem nobody warns you about when you finally crack the code.  Stop letting human setters bottleneck your pipeline.  If you're doing $50K+ a month with cold traffic, Charlie's AI setter can do what mine just did, produce sets that turn into closed cash, not just booked calls that ghost. Watch this before you spend another dollar trying to scale. Book your Charlie demo at charlieai.io before your competitors deploy this on you first. Earn a damn good living. Leverage AI. Have business on your terms.

    13 min

  4. Apr 21

    The secret system behind my $463K to $1M month

    We went from $463K to nearly $1M in 30 days, with zero human setters! Let me show you exactly how. Most founders think scaling revenue means scaling headcount.  That thinking kept me stuck for years, and it's probably keeping you stuck right now. In this video, I'm breaking down the complete system behind one of the most radical single-month jumps I've ever had, the 5 pillars I use to build a championship team, the 4 behavioral core values that automatically filter out the wrong people, and the AI infrastructure I use to run appointment setting on full autopilot.  This is the exact framework I'm running inside a real eight-figure operation right now, and I'm documenting every single piece of it for you. You'll walk away knowing how to set expectations that eliminate team dysfunction before it starts, how to build a group identity that makes great people want to stay, how to create decision-making frameworks that don't require you in every room, and how to practice intelligent failure, the exact skill that turned a $100K mistake in February into a million-dollar March. If you're building a high-ticket business and you're serious about scaling without burning yourself or your team out, watch this all the way through.  Then grab my AI Lead Manager Playbook below. It's the starting point for everything I teach here. Earn a damn good living. Leverage AI. Have business on your terms. ⬇️ Get the AI Lead Manager Playbook: https://demo.ai-setters.com/optin---lead-management  Book a demo here: https://demo.ai-setters.com/optin-playbook-192642

    20 min

  5. Apr 8

    This Ai Sales System Produced 330k In 10 Days

    We didn't hire more setters. We didn't run more ads. We just built the right system, and in the first 10 days of March, it collected $330K.  Most founders scale by throwing bodies and budget at problems. That's exactly why they stay stuck. In this video, I'm pulling back the curtain on the exact 5-pillar system we used to go from $165K/month to pacing $1.2M, without a single setter on payroll. You'll see the real numbers: January at $573,000, February's costly mistakes that dropped us to $461,000, and how we corrected course fast enough to nearly match that entire month in just 10 days. This isn't theory. This is a live business being documented in real time so you can steal what works. If you're a founder trying to scale past $100K/month and you keep hitting the same walls,  bad lead quality, weak closers, a sales process you can't forecast this video will show you exactly what's missing and how to fix it. By the end of this video, you'll know: → How we went from $165K/month to projecting $1.3M, with the same ad spend  → Why we eliminated all our setters 2.5 years ago, and never looked back  → How our AI lead management system (Charlie) runs a 58% response rate and 25% response-to-set across millions of conversations  → The 13-point KPI checklist we use before scaling any ad spend  → How to use a forecast calculator to predict revenue and hire ahead of bottlenecks before they kill your growth   If your sales process still depends on humans chasing cold leads, you're leaving serious money on the table.  Grab our free AI Lead Management Playbook to start plugging AI into your sales process today 👉 https://demo.ai-setters.com/optin-playbook-192642  Want us to build and install it for you? Request a demo at https://www.charlieai.io/freedemo  and let's get you set up. Subscribe to my YouTube channel for weekly behind-the-scenes breakdowns as we document taking this brand to $1M/month in real time. https://www.youtube.com/@founderfires  Stay tuned for more upcoming breakdowns on exactly what it takes to scale a business to eight figures. -- https://www.youtube.com/@founderfires

    21 min

  6. Mar 27

    The $70M REVENUE FRAMEWORK founders never talk about

    I've collected over $70M in cash across 6 eight-figure brands since 2020. This is the exact framework behind every single one of them, and I'm putting it all on the table. Most founders are scaling too early, chasing too many channels, and throwing money at problems they haven't even diagnosed yet. I've been there, and I built a framework specifically to fix that.  I'm breaking down my 5-phase optimization framework: the exact system I run without fail every time I want to take a brand past eight figures. I've never spent more than $30 a day outside of Meta. I haven't needed to.  When you have the right framework, one channel is more than enough to build an empire.  This episode will show you exactly how that's possible and how to apply it to your business starting today. Here's what you're walking away with: My complete 5-phase framework. from ground zero R&D all the way to full scale The CADE model: how I make every major business decision with data, not gut feelings Why "More, Better, Repeat" is the only growth engine you need before you even think about something new How I use LinkedIn cold outreach to validate hooks before spending a single dollar on ads The exact KPIs I look for before I pour gas on any funnel Why I've built 6 eight-figure brands off one ad platform — and why that's not a coincidence  If you're serious about building something that actually hits 8 figures, stop guessing and start following a framework that's already done it six times. Watch this. Take notes. Execute. And if this brought you value, subscribe, this is the level of content I drop every week on Founder Fires.

    27 min
  7. 1 tweak that took show rate from 58% to 72%

    Mar 17

    1 tweak that took show rate from 58% to 72%

    You're spending money to get leads booked on your calendar, and half of them aren't showing up. That's not a lead problem. That's a show rate problem, and it's quietly killing your revenue. Last month, the AI systems I've built produced over $3 million in cash collected from appointments placed on sales teams' calendars.  One of the biggest drivers behind those numbers isn't ad spend or more leads, it's show rate.  In this video, I'm walking you through the exact framework I use to consistently hit 60–80% show rates across multiple offers.  I'll pull up our live dashboard and show you exactly how one of my portfolio businesses went from a 58% show rate and $409K cash collected to a 68% show rate and $454K, in the same sales cycle, with less ad spend.  I'll also show you the single naming convention fix that took a completely separate offer from 40% to 70% show rate, and break down the 4 core principles every booking sequence needs to have if you want prospects to actually show up, take the call seriously, and buy.  If your marketing is working but your revenue isn't reflecting it, this is exactly where to look. Want the full Show Rate Optimization Playbook I use internally across all my portfolio clients?  Comment "𝑺𝑯𝑶𝑾 𝑹𝑨𝑻𝑬" below and I'll get it to you. Subscribe if you want the real numbers, real systems, and zero fluff, this is what building a scalable sales machine actually looks like.

    16 min

  8. Mar 3

    How we hit $573K in 30 days with this conversation funnel

    Most businesses I work with are generating leads, but bleeding them out before they ever reach a sales call. This funnel is what fixed that. I took one account from $80K a month to $573,175 collected in 30 days. Not with more ads. Not with a bigger sales team. With a conversation funnel and five principles that most businesses are completely ignoring.  In this episode, I'm pulling back the curtain on the exact system behind that number, and the $3M+ we collected across 10 accounts in January alone.  I'll show you the real data: 1,000 leads processed, 56% response rate, 25% lead-to-book rate, 595 calls booked, and a sales team closing at 25% because every lead that showed up was already qualified, already interested, and already trusted us before the call even started.  That's what a dialed-in conversation funnel does. It doesn't just book calls; it makes your entire sales operation run as it should. Download my free AI Lead Management Playbook and start building this inside your business today:  https://demo.ai-setters.com/optin-playbook  Or go to www.charlieai.io and book a demo to see exactly how we build it for you inside Charlie.

    11 min
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About

Founder Fires is for the builders, the risk-takers, and the ones figuring it out as they go. Hosted by Iggy Odighizuwa, this podcast is raw, real, and all about what it takes to build something big. There is no fluff, just straight-up lessons from the trenches, personal stories, hard truths, and conversations with other founders who are eating glass and still showing up. Whether knee-deep in your startup or still dreaming from the sidelines, this is your spot to learn, get inspired, and stay grounded in the chaos. Let's build, fire and all.

Information

  • Creator
    Iggy
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    28
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2025
  • Show Website
    Founder Fires