Product Bakery - How Founders Build and Sell with AI

Christian Strunk
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Building products got easy. Shipping didn't. Every week, Christian Strunk (Product Coach, Berlin) sits down with founders and solopreneurs who actually launch products with AI, and drags out the part other podcasts skip: the exact step-by-step. The prompts they use. The money they burned. Bakin' in public, weekly.

  1. Oct 19

    #141 6 From 6 Hours of Building to $175K Revenue | With Darius Mora

    I sat down with Darius Mora, who's spent almost ten years in the app business. He was Reflectly's first employee and CMO, and he helped grow the journaling app to over 20 million users. Last year his app studio shipped 35 products. One of them made $175.000 in its first three weeks with zero ad spend. Now he runs Absorbed, a toxin scanner for women. He also runs the App Marketing Accelerator with his co-founder Maria. So I asked him the question every builder is stuck on: how do you make an app succeed in an App Store that's completely saturated? Instead of keeping it abstract, I handed him my own old wardrobe app to coach live. What came out is a distribution-first playbook. It's built for the moment when anyone can ship an app in a weekend. If you can build but can't get anyone to find what you built, this one's for you. What you'll see: Why distribution now beats the product, and why last year's ASO keyword arbitrage is already deadProduct channel fit, picking the channel before the feature so you can show value in three seconds (Cal AI, Absorbed)Onboarding as a sales letter, where 80% of paying customers decide in the first five minutes- Qualified volume, why one video got 2 million views and 4 installs while another got 100.000 views and 100 installsBuilding his own attribution tools because App Store numbers and expensive third-party tools don't workPicking a co-founder you can be miserable with, and why co-founder dispute kills more startups than competition 🥐 JOIN THE BUILDERS COMMUNITY https://www.product-bakery.com/community?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=video 🤖 ABOUT DARIUS MORA: Website: https://dariusmora.com?utm_source=yspotify&utm_medium=video Accelerator: https://appmarketingaccelerator.com?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=video Services: https://stan.store/darius-mora?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=video Insta: https://www.instagram.com/buildwithdarius.ai/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/moravcik/ Chapters: 0:00 The app that made 175K in three weeks 1:02 Meet Darius Mora2:50 Why ASO stopped working this year 4:38 Riding a keyword before everyone else 9:22 Efficient at the wrong thing 14:50 Finding your feature channel fit 18:30 Onboarding is really sales 27:38 Why friction helps onboarding 29:05 Viral views vs paying users 37:15 How he found his co-founder ✩ Follow The Product Bakery Podcast ✩ 🌍 Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.product-bakery.com/ 👨‍💻 LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Product Bakery⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 📸 Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@productbakery ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠🐦 X/Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠productbakery20

  2. Oct 12

    #140 How A Non Engineer Automates Startups With Claude | With Lena Schaefer

    What if the best AI automation builders right now aren't developers at all? In this episode, I sit down with Lena Schaefer, a non-engineer ops leader. We pull apart how she builds AI automation and agents inside startups. No code. She left corporate in 2022 to become the first finance hire at Levity. Now she runs operations across Europe and the US. What you'll see: - The Socratic ladder she runs to turn vague pain into a defined, buildable automation - Why the missing owner is the real bug, not the missing tool - The decision rule for automation vs a narrow agent vs a plain spreadsheet - Guardrails that stop runaway token burn: least-privilege access and a three-try cap - Her lean prompting stack: caveman language, voice input, and no screenshots 🤖 ABOUT LENA SCHAEFER: Website: https://lenaschaefer.me/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_content=JunJTQuHWAs LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lena-sc/ GitHub: https://github.com/Berlena 🥐 JOIN THE BUILDERS COMMUNITY https://www.product-bakery.com/community?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_content=spotify #automation #startuplife #processes Chapters: 00:00 The contract nobody renewed 00:56 From bank auditor to AI ops builder 03:26 Her first ChatGPT automation, and why it backfired 08:01 How to find the process worth automating1 4:38 Automation, AI agent or spreadsheet? 20:20 Why she stopped using Zapier and Make 21:53 Stop burning tokens: the 3-try rule 30:23 Caveman prompts and 3 rules against ops chaos ✩ Follow The Product Bakery Podcast ✩ 🌍 Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.product-bakery.com/ 👨‍💻 LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Product Bakery⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 📸 Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@productbakery⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 🐦 X/Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠productbakery20

  3. Sep 15

    #139 Your AI Agents Are More Dangerous Than You Think | With Michael Kantor

    I sat down with Michael Kantor, president of HOL (Hashgraph Online). Before HOL, he was a senior full-stack engineer and then an engineering lead at Finder. He founded a company called KiloStripe. He also sits on the Hiero Technical Steering Committee at the Linux Foundation, where HOL contributes open standards. So when he talks about AI agents going rogue, it comes from building the infrastructure himself, not from a slide deck. I brought him one question. What happens when your agents stop being tools you use and start doing work on their own? And how do you keep them from wrecking things? What came out was a blunt tour of the risks nobody warns you about. Michael and his team built HOL Guard because they had so much anxiety letting Codex build their own infrastructure. This one is for anyone handing Claude Code or Codex to their team and quietly hoping nothing breaks. What you'll see: The importance of AI and Cybersecurity in 2026Why HOL Guard sits between the agent and every tool call, so a poisoned model physically can't delete your S3 bucketThe number that started it all, Codex reading environment secrets 2 to 3 times an hour over an 8-hour jobWhy people flip AI into YOLO mode, and how per-command policy beats approving every single actionThe café WiFi attack, and why the real risk is the wire between you and OpenAI, not your laptopWhat Michael refuses to do with agents: automate email, generate blog posts, trust someone else's sandbox 🤖 ABOUT MICHAEL KANTOR: Website: https://hol.org/go/guard/christian?dest=%2Fguard&link_id=798e5135-9786-4a8b-bf79-602986ed6ee1&utm_source=christian&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=defaultLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kantorcodes/X/Twitter: https://x.com/Kantorcodes 🥐 JOIN THE BUILDERS COMMUNITY https://www.product-bakery.com/community#aiagents #holguard #buildinpublic Chapters: 0:00 What if agents actually work for us 1:53 Who is Michael Kantor 2:45 What agents get right and wrong 7:56 The danger of unknown AI models 13:00 The genie is out of the bottle 16:44 HOL Guard for the other 99 percent 22:12 How agents identify each other 29:03 Running your own agent team 35:35 HOL Guard live demo 40:51 The mistakes people keep making ✩ Follow The Product Bakery Podcast ✩ 👨‍💻 LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Product Bakery⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 📸 Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@productbakery⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 🐦 Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠productbakery20⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 🌍 Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.product-bakery.com/⁠

  4. Sep 9

    #138 Why Engineers Vibe Code Better Than You - With Simon Klinkert

    I sat down with Simon Klinkert. He built the banking backend at Trade Republic. Now he is building a new US bank in stealth. He hasn't written a line of code by hand since ChatGPT V3. So I asked him how a non-technical builder like me gets better at vibe coding. What you'll see: Treat AI like a junior engineer, not a genieWhy the bottleneck moved from writing code to reviewing itThe review swarm: 2 to 5 agents checking architecture, duplication, security, and complianceHow Conductor runs 10 isolated agents at once without collisionsThe four practices I'm stealing: testable goals, a weekly maintenance agent, deterministic CI checks, daily user acceptance testing 🤖 ABOUT SIMON KLINKERT: Website: https://simonklinkert.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simon-klinkert/GitHub: https://github.com/sklinkert 🥐 JOIN THE BUILDERS COMMUNITY https://www.product-bakery.com/community Chapters: 0:00 Is your AI app any good? 1:53 Treat AI like a junior 5:56 Code review is the bottleneck 7:55 Review agents and security 11:02 Why context matters 13:35 What Conductor actually does 20:20 Moving development to the cloud 27:42 Auditing a startup setup 29:12 The cultural shift needed 30:52 Where LLMs go next 35:47 Scheduling weekly review agents 37:47 User acceptance testing setup ✩ Follow The Product Bakery Podcast ✩ 👨‍💻 LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Product Bakery⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 📸 Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@productbakery⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 🐦 Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠productbakery20⁠⁠⁠⁠ 🌍 Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.product-bakery.com/

  5. 08/20/2024 ·  Bonus

    #137 Time To Say Good Bye

    This is the official end of the product bakery. Thanks to everyone who followed us for 4 years! Tune in one last time! If you want to stay in touch let's connect on LinkedIn: Christian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christianstrunk/ https://www.christianstrunk.com/ https://www.solopreneur-coaching.com/ Alex: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexdapunt/

  6. 07/16/2024

    #136 The Lack Of Innovation

    -SUMMER BREAK UNTIL MID OF AUGUST- Is innovation dead? Do companies even innovate or just re-use and refine existing innovation? This week, we discuss the necessity of innovation and what companies and teams can do to move forward. ✩ Follow The Product Bakery Podcast ✩ 👨‍💻 Linkedin: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Product Bakery⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 📸 Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@productbakery⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 🐦 Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠productbakery20⁠⁠⁠ 🌍 Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.product-bakery.com/

  7. 07/08/2024

    #135 How To Create Design And Brand Systems

    In this episode, Alex coaches Christian on how to create a holistic design and brand system that can be applied consistently across multiple channels. ✩ Follow The Product Bakery Podcast ✩ 👨‍💻 Linkedin: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Product Bakery⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 📸 Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@productbakery⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 🐦 Twitter: ⁠⁠productbakery20⁠⁠ 🌍 Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.product-bakery.com/

  8. 07/01/2024

    #134 Why Product Manager Shouldn't Exist

    Spoiler: This episode might be disturbing and might change your point of view on how product people and organizations should work... ✩ Follow The Product Bakery Podcast ✩ 👨‍💻 Linkedin: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Product Bakery⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 📸 Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@productbakery⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 🐦 Twitter: ⁠productbakery20⁠ 🌍 Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.product-bakery.com/

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Building products got easy. Shipping didn't. Every week, Christian Strunk (Product Coach, Berlin) sits down with founders and solopreneurs who actually launch products with AI, and drags out the part other podcasts skip: the exact step-by-step. The prompts they use. The money they burned. Bakin' in public, weekly.

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