AI is removing the constraints that used to hold back senior leaders and their teams from experimenting and building, and rewriting how companies operate in this paradigm shift. The leverage goes beyond cost savings. When AI provides the engineering, design, and specialized knowledge, this opens up vast opportunities for leaders with strong judgment to tinker and experiment for compounding leverage. The leaders who create disproportionate impact will not only take advantage of this shift to tinker more, they’ll know where their experimentation actually compounds. LinkedIn Live Podcast: AI Tinkering for Leaders: From Experimentation to Compounding Leverage Joe Heitzeberg is the founder of AI Tinkerers, a curated global network of more than 100,000 hands-on AI builders across 220 cities, bringing together pioneering engineers, researchers, founders, and operators who build with frontier AI, demo working systems, pressure-test new tools, and share the hard-won lessons that become practical signal for the field. He is a serial entrepreneur and angel investor. He co-founded Crowd Cow, founded MediaPiston, acquired by oDesk/Upwork, and founded Snapvine, acquired by Whitepages. He also co-founded and served as President of Madrona Venture Labs, where he helped launch Spare5, later Mighty AI, an AI training-data company acquired by Uber in 2019. Joe is a 2019 Alumni Impact Award recipient from the University of Washington’s Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering. He holds a B.S. in Computer Science from UW and an MBA from MIT Sloan. Across his career, a common thread emerges: using technology to orchestrate trust, quality, and opportunity between people, and unlocking potential that wouldn’t otherwise exist. In this live conversation, we’ll explore non-obvious insights from Joe’s unique vantage point: What builders/tinkerers are seeing that VCs and Twitter/X aren’t talking aboutWhy you can’t understand AI without building, and what only tinkering revealsHow to think about durability while tinkering What we can learn from the OpenClaw example (Fun fact: Peter Steinberger, creator of OpenClaw is part of the AI Tinkerers community!)Why AI gives experienced operators more leverageHow leaders can experiment in ways that actually compound, not turn into noise This is a conversation about leadership in a moment where there is no playbook. 💡 For CEOs, founders, and senior executives navigating high-stakes decisions in the AI era 🎯 Come for the non-obvious insights. Stay for how leaders create leverage in real time 💬 Drop your questions in the comments for Q&A at the end The Christina Pan Podcast is on YouTube, LinkedIn, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music. --- 👉 To connect with Joe Heitzeberg: If you’re an executive trying to move from AI discussion to credible proof-of-work, Joe can help you get closer to frontier AI builders, working demos, and vetted advisors who have actually shipped. He can help you pressure-test where AI can compound, design a high-signal builder session for your leadership team, or connect you with the right people from the AI Tinkerers network. Reach out to Joe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joeheitzeberg/ 👉 To connect with Christina Pan: If you’re a CEO, founder, or senior executive who is navigating strategic clarity and self doubts in your team’s AI transformation, and you want to be optimally steering your team’s tinkering/experimentation to the highest leverage paths - I work privately with clients like you as a strategic sounding board and executive coach. When you know the ladder is on the right wall, that’s when we get compounding leverage in the right directions. The next step is to reach out directly or book a call on my LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinawpan/ My zone of genius is maximizing your zone of genius. 🧠 Full replay on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjVH_udkeBs
