Founder Real Talk

Wisdom Partners
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  • Entrepreneurship

A podcast for founders, by founders. We explore the real journey of building and growing a company. Each episode, we go beyond the highlight reel to unpack the strategies, decisions, and hard lessons that shaped successful businesses, revealing the good, the bad, and the ugly behind the growth.

  1. 1d ago

    Google, Amazon, Microsoft — Now Startup #4. David Aronchick on Building Expanso | Ep. 71

    Welcome to Founder Real Talk, a podcast for founders, by founders.  We explore the real journey of building and growing a company. Each episode, we go beyond the highlight reel to unpack the strategies, decisions, and hard lessons that shaped successful businesses, revealing the good, the bad, and the ugly behind the growth. This week, Josh sits down with David Aronchick, a veteran of Google, Amazon, and Microsoft, now on his fourth startup as founder and CEO of Expanso — infrastructure that lets organizations run compute where their data actually lives, instead of shipping it all to the cloud. David explains the problem with a gold-mine analogy that makes it click for anyone, and opens up about a counterintuitive year-one lesson: cost savings, the thing he assumed would be the easiest sell, barely moved the needle because almost nobody in a company actually cares about saving money. He also gets honest about the cost of a toxic hire, why 168 hours a week is the one constraint no founder escapes, and — in a role reversal to close the episode — turns the mic on Josh to ask what founders should be doing sooner than they do. - This episode was brought to you by Wisdom Partners. If you’re looking for more real conversations, practical resources, and honest founder stories, follow us for upcoming episodes of Founder Real Talk. We invite you to subscribe to our Substack newsletters to receive weekly articles, insights, and resources designed to support founders through every stage of the journey! Contact us: wisdompartners.llc/contact Subscribe to our Substack: blog.wisdompartners.llc Chapters  (00:00) - Intro (01:53) - What Expanso does (04:28) - The gold mine analogy that makes it click (07:31) - Lessons from Google, Amazon, and Microsoft (08:31) - Landing enterprise customers after 12+ months (09:48) - Starting with enterprise instead of starving first (12:36) - Cost savings isn’t the pitch you think it is (14:40) - Money, mission, risk  (17:23) - Rising above the noise (18:12) - Finding the Goldilocks person inside an organization (21:43) - Getting past the b******t meter with real data (23:58) - Hiring quickly without hiring toxic people (26:01) - 168 hours in a week (27:18) - David turns the mic on Josh: three things founders should do sooner Links & Resources  David’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aronchickExpanso: https://expanso.ioBlog: The Energy vs Money Matrix: https://blog.wisdompartners.llc/p/the-energy-vs-money-matrix-how-to Keywords founders, entrepreneurship, edge computing, data infrastructure, Expanso, David Aronchick, repeat founder, fourth-time founder, enterprise sales, cost savings pitch, delegation, hiring mistakes, toxic hires, founder burnout, executive buyers, VP-level champions, go-to-market strategy, big tech alumni, Google Amazon Microsoft, 168 hours, startup, advice, coach, coaching, podcast, real tal

    Google, Amazon, Microsoft — Now Startup #4. David Aronchick on Building Expanso | Ep. 71

  2. 4d ago

    How a Hurricane Forced Shane Parreco to Rebuild Aktiga | Ep. 70

    Welcome to Founder Real Talk, a podcast for founders, by founders.  We explore the real journey of building and growing a company. Each episode, we go beyond the highlight reel to unpack the strategies, decisions, and hard lessons that shaped successful businesses, revealing the good, the bad, and the ugly behind the growth. This week, Josh sits down with Shane Parreco, founder and CEO of Aktïga, a software development and product studio based in Asheville, North Carolina. Shane never set out to run a client services agency — but when Hurricane Helene hit, leaving his team without power for a month and water for six weeks, it forced a scrappy pivot that accidentally became the company's whole model. He opens up about becoming the go-to technical partner for an underserved region, why he once told a client to buy a $20 CRM instead of building custom software, the homeless day center still tracking everything on paper, and the toxic hire — a friend — that cost him two team members and a friendship. - This episode was brought to you by Wisdom Partners. If you’re looking for more real conversations, practical resources, and honest founder stories, follow us for upcoming episodes of Founder Real Talk. We invite you to subscribe to our Substack newsletters to receive weekly articles, insights, and resources designed to support founders through every stage of the journey! Contact us: wisdompartners.llc/contact Subscribe to our Substack: blog.wisdompartners.llc Chapters (00:00) - Intro (02:33) - Being a tech founder in Asheville, not the Bay Area (06:50) - What Aktiga actually does (and the accidental pivot into a dev shop) (17:52) - The unsexy win: bringing a homeless day center out of pen and paper (19:23) - Local, human access to software development (24:00) - "We're not here to sell you software" — the client who just needed a CRM (28:57) - The hardest lesson: the toxic hire who was a friend (37:30) - Why he refuses to put a time box on creative people (40:38) - The believer-hater AI spectrum: where Josh and Shane land (46:30) - Why you can't fake a face-to-face in the AI era (48:21) - Closing thoughts  Links & Resources Shane’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shane-parrecoAktïga Website: https://aktiga.comWisdom Partners blog post: The Power of Unsexy Customers: https://blog.wisdompartners.llc/p/the-power-of-unsexy-customers Keywords founders, entrepreneurship, software development, dev shop, product studio, Aktiga, Shane Parreco, Asheville, Hurricane Helene, regional startup ecosystem, accidental pivot, client services, custom software, unsexy customers, nonprofits, hiring mistakes, toxic hire, remote work, AI and jobs, human connection, bootstrappin

    How a Hurricane Forced Shane Parreco to Rebuild Aktiga | Ep. 70

  3. Oct 2

    He Expected 75 Clients in Year One. He Got 9. — Rich Benci on Building Omega Benefits | Ep. 69

    Welcome to Founder Real Talk, a podcast for founders, by founders.  We explore the real journey of building and growing a company. Each episode, we go beyond the highlight reel to unpack the strategies, decisions, and hard lessons that shaped successful businesses, revealing the good, the bad, and the ugly behind the growth. This week, Josh sits down with Rich Benci, founder and CEO of Omega Benefits — a company that helps HR teams communicate employee benefits so workers and their spouses actually understand and use them. Rich is a two-time cancer survivor whose two diagnoses came with two wildly different financial outcomes, and that experience became the personal mission behind Omega. He opens up about the brutal first year when he expected 75 licenses and landed 9, the conversation with his wife about shutting it all down, and the mindset shift that turned the company around: realizing that the broker — not the HR team who pays him — is his real customer. - This episode was brought to you by Wisdom Partners. If you’re looking for more real conversations, practical resources, and honest founder stories, follow us for upcoming episodes of Founder Real Talk. We invite you to subscribe to our Substack newsletters to receive weekly articles, insights, and resources designed to support founders through every stage of the journey! Contact us: wisdompartners.llc/contact Subscribe to our Substack: blog.wisdompartners.llc Chapters  (00:00) - Intro (02:03) - What Omega Benefits does (04:55) - The communication layer between HR and employees (06:56) - Two cancers, two very different financial outcomes (10:27) - Becoming a preferred partner for national brokerages (11:52) - The year-one gut punch (15:24) - The conversation about shutting it down (18:34) - Earning broker trust (23:01) - Give before you ask (24:17) - The mindset shift: the broker is the real customer (25:09) - The biggest challenge now: founder-led sales (29:18) - Evolving as a leader (32:03) - Investing in himself Links & Resources  Rich’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richbenciOmega Benefits Inc: https://omegabenefits.net/ Keywords founders, entrepreneurship, employee benefits, HR tech, benefits communication, Omega Benefits, Rich Benci, insurance, channel partners, brokers, cancer survivor, founder mission, near-death startup, product-market fit, trust building, give before you ask, two-sided market, founder-led sales, mastermind groups, leadership development, delegation

    He Expected 75 Clients in Year One. He Got 9. — Rich Benci on Building Omega Benefits | Ep. 69

  4. Sep 29

    Why One Hacker Now Does the Work of an Entire Team with Brett Ewing | Ep. 68

    Welcome to Founder Real Talk, a podcast for founders, by founders. We explore the real journey of building and growing a company. Each episode, we go beyond the highlight reel to unpack the strategies, decisions, and hard lessons that shaped successful businesses, revealing the good, the bad, and the ugly behind the growth. Brett Ewing is the co-founder of Axe AI, an offensive cybersecurity platform automating penetration testing and vulnerability management across complex hardware and operational technologies. In this episode, Brett breaks down how merging a 20-year-old white-hat services firm with a software team allowed one engineer to manage over $1,000,000 in testing workload. He shares why his team deliberately uses AI as little as possible to prevent compounding errors, how he enforces a mandate of two new certifications a year for every employee, and why playing the "infinite game" means turning down traditional venture capital. — This episode was brought to you by Wisdom Partners. If you're looking for more real conversations, practical resources, and honest founder stories, follow us for upcoming episodes of Founder Real Talk. We invite you to subscribe to our Substack newsletters to receive weekly articles, insights, and resources designed to support founders through every stage of the journey! Contact us: wisdompartners.llc/contact Subscribe to our Substack: blog.wisdompartners.llc Chapters(00:00) - Intro  (02:29) - Hacking hardware and the industrial grid  (05:32) - Shrinking six weeks of pen testing into two weeks  (08:05) - One deployed engineer doing a million dollars in work  (11:18) - Why we use AI as little as possible  (15:23) - The painful nine-month procurement process (21:22) - Burning out and stepping off the hustle grind  (24:43) - The two certifications per year mandate  (28:32) - Getting paid to break into banks and hospitals  (34:00) - Reorganizing into a holding company model  (36:18) - Rejecting VC money to play the infinite game  (39:48) - Only losing one employee in twenty years Links & ResourcesGuest: Brett Ewing, Co-Founder of Axe AIGuest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brettewingGuest Website: https://axe.ai/Keywordsfounders, entrepreneurship, Brett Ewing, Axe AI, cybersecurity, penetration testing, offensive security, ethical hacking, AI automation, operational technology, hardware security, white hat hacker, GIAC certification, SANS institute, infinite game, startup growth, founder burnout, enterprise sales, bootstrap funding

    Why One Hacker Now Does the Work of an Entire Team with Brett Ewing | Ep. 68

  5. Sep 24

    Giving People Who Have No Voice a Voice — Maheen Adamson on Building Soof Solutions | Ep. 67

    Welcome to Founder Real Talk, a podcast for founders, by founders.  We explore the real journey of building and growing a company. Each episode, we go beyond the highlight reel to unpack the strategies, decisions, and hard lessons that shaped successful businesses, revealing the good, the bad, and the ugly behind the growth. This week, Josh sits down with Maheen Mausoof Adamson, a clinical professor at Stanford University, a neuroscientist with 20 years of brain injury experience, and the founder and CEO of Soof Solutions — a healthcare startup building AI-powered eye-tracking communication tools for people who have lost the ability to speak. The company was born out of her father's 2008 stroke, which left him unable to speak or use his right hand. Maheen walks through how eye movement can restore communication and dignity, gets candid about the "startup pinch" and the sharks circling early-stage founders, and shares hard-won lessons on hiring, fundraising, and why she leads her team from the bottom up rather than the top down. - This episode was brought to you by Wisdom Partners. If you’re looking for more real conversations, practical resources, and honest founder stories, follow us for upcoming episodes of Founder Real Talk. We invite you to subscribe to our Substack newsletters to receive weekly articles, insights, and resources designed to support founders through every stage of the journey! Contact us: wisdompartners.llc/contact Subscribe to our Substack: blog.wisdompartners.llc Chapters (00:00) - Intro (02:12) - What an AI-powered eye-tracking communication tool actually is (03:49) - Her father's stroke and the origin of Soof Solutions (07:41) - A big win: FDA non-significant risk approval and two active hospital pilots (08:59) - The startup pinch and the sharks circling early-stage founders (12:18) - Wisdom is failure redeemed: the marketing company that wasted two months (17:32) - The biggest challenge: finding the right people for the team (22:40) - Evolving as a leader: putting employees first and leading from the bottom up (25:54) - Her growing edge: learning to scale and trust people to lead (30:52) - Investing in herself: women's groups, advisors, and refusing to white-knuckle it Links & Resources  Maheen LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maheenmadamsonSoof Solutions: https://soofsolutions.com/ Keywords  founders, entrepreneurship, health tech, assistive technology, eye tracking, AAC, augmentative communication, stroke recovery, ALS, SIP Solutions, Maheen Adamson, Stanford, neuroscience, FDA approval, startup pinch, founder fundraising, sharks, hiring and firing, servant leadership, ownership culture, work-life balance, women founders, healthcare go-to-market

    Giving People Who Have No Voice a Voice — Maheen Adamson on Building Soof Solutions | Ep. 67

  6. Sep 21

    Putting Ads Inside Fortnite: How a $100 GameStop Prize Turned Into an AI Ad-Tech Startup | Ep. 66

    Welcome to Founder Real Talk, a podcast for founders, by founders. We explore the real journey of building and growing a company. Each episode, we go beyond the highlight reel to unpack the strategies, decisions, and hard lessons that shaped successful businesses, revealing the good, the bad, and the ugly behind the growth. Max Albert is the founder and CEO of Adrenaline Interactive, an AI-powered ad tech startup that places brand and product placements directly inside video games like Fortnite and Roblox. In this conversation, Max walks through how a childhood Mario Kart obsession turned into a career, why "what even counts as an impression" is ad tech's hardest unsolved problem, and how landing a campaign with FIFA Heroes became one of the proudest moments of his company's life. He also gets candid about overworking himself after raising venture capital, the leadership shift from "quarterback" to "coach," and the spiritual book that reshaped how he thinks about building something that actually matters. — This episode was brought to you by Wisdom Partners. If you're looking for more real conversations, practical resources, and honest founder stories, follow us for upcoming episodes of Founder Real Talk. We invite you to subscribe to our Substack newsletters to receive weekly articles, insights, and resources designed to support founders through every stage of the journey! Contact us: wisdompartners.llc/contact Subscribe to our Substack: blog.wisdompartners.llc Chapters(00:00) - Intro (02:05) - Why the video game industry suddenly needs advertisers (03:01) - A $100 GameStop prize that made him feel richer than Elon Musk (05:56) - FIFA Heroes and building an NFL game with an actual Browns receiver (08:07) - What EA and FIFA's breakup proved about games as the real ad channel (10:59) - What growing past 20 employees taught him about being heard (14:44) - "Slowing down to speed up," and why direction beats speed (17:04) - Ad tech's hardest problem: nobody agrees on what counts as an impression (20:55) - His current growing edge: prioritizing the right feedback (23:49) - The Zuckerberg line he lives by, and ditching the 12-hour-day myth (27:23) - Quarterback, coach, general manager — and "I don't pay you to agree with me" (33:06) - The book that rewired his idea of a good life Links & ResourcesGuest: Max Albert, CEO & Founder of Adrenaline InteractiveGuest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/max-albert-4b0b02a9Guest Website: https://www.adrenalineinteractive.ai/ Keywordsfounders, entrepreneurship, ad tech, video game advertising, in-game advertising, product placement, startup leadership, venture capital, founder mental health, gaming industry, AI advertising, brand measurement, EA Sports FC, FIFA, esports, remote teams, startup culture, CEO leadership, work-life balance, founder burnout

    Putting Ads Inside Fortnite: How a $100 GameStop Prize Turned Into an AI Ad-Tech Startup | Ep. 66

  7. Sep 18

    Your Time Is Worth $2,000 an Hour — Adam Spector on Building Chore | Ep. 65

    Welcome to Founder Real Talk, a podcast for founders, by founders.  We explore the real journey of building and growing a company. Each episode, we go beyond the highlight reel to unpack the strategies, decisions, and hard lessons that shaped successful businesses, revealing the good, the bad, and the ugly behind the growth. This week, Josh sits down with Adam Spector, a four-time startup founder and active angel investor, now running Chore — a platform combining AI with human operators to manage HR, finance, and compliance for startups. Adam makes the case that founders should never be spending time on back-office admin, using a simple test: would you ever tell Elon Musk to go figure out why Tesla's payroll didn't run? He shares the story of a founder who saved $250 a month doing his own bookkeeping and lost six years of momentum because of it, walks through Naval Ravikant's $2,000-an-hour time heuristic, and gets honest about a recent compensation change that landed with more resistance than he expected. The conversation closes with an unusually deep, mutual exploration of what "good judgment" actually means for a founder, and how it's developed. - This episode was brought to you by Wisdom Partners. If you’re looking for more real conversations, practical resources, and honest founder stories, follow us for upcoming episodes of Founder Real Talk. We invite you to subscribe to our Substack newsletters to receive weekly articles, insights, and resources designed to support founders through every stage of the journey! Contact us: wisdompartners.llc/contact Subscribe to our Substack: blog.wisdompartners.llc Chapters (00:00) - Intro (02:09) - Why the founder journey is addictive despite how hard it is (03:23) - What Chore actually solves: the three core parts of a business (06:42) - The pie baker analogy: why founders lose the thing they love (08:06) - Buy Back Your Time and the real cost of doing it yourself (10:22) - The founder who saved $250 a month and lost six years (13:23) - Naval Ravikant's $2,000-an-hour heuristic (14:46) - A big win: profitable since day one, bootstrapped, and 50 people strong (16:17) - Learning through struggle (19:46) - Are his workdays actually shorter after four startups? (21:24) - The biggest challenge: automating the back office without losing the human touch (23:18) - Evolving as a leader (24:33) - Investing in yourself (25:57) - What is "good judgment," actually?   Links & Resources Adam’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamspector2Chore Website: https://www.hirechore.com/Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell: https://www.amazon.com/Buy-Back-Your-Time-Unstuck/dp/059342297X Keywords founders, entrepreneurship, back office, HR outsourcing, finance outsourcing, compliance, Chore, Adam Spector, bootstrapped startup, repeat founder, angel investor, buy back your time, time valuation, Naval Ravikant, EOS Traction, E-Myth, compensation and leadership, founder judgment, emotional intelligence, executive coaching, peer groups, Elon Musk analogy, delegation, AI and automation

    Your Time Is Worth $2,000 an Hour — Adam Spector on Building Chore | Ep. 65

  8. Sep 16

    Why Over-Hiring Nearly Killed His Startup with Jeb Dunkelberger | Ep. 64

    Welcome to Founder Real Talk, a podcast for founders, by founders. We explore the real journey of building and growing a company. Each episode, we go beyond the highlight reel to unpack the strategies, decisions, and hard lessons that shaped successful businesses, revealing the good, the bad, and the ugly behind the growth. Jeb Dunkelberger is the founder and CEO of Coalition Health Group, an insurance services platform modularizing healthcare functions to make alternative funding accessible to small and mid-sized businesses. After early market demand sparked massive hiring, Jeb faced the painful reality of "startup indigestion"—over-scaling a service team before sales converted. He opens up about executing tough workforce reductions, establishing intentional tension within leadership, and why listening and radical accountability are the ultimate tools for scaling both a business and a life. — This episode was brought to you by Wisdom Partners. If you're looking for more real conversations, practical resources, and honest founder stories, follow us for upcoming episodes of Founder Real Talk. We invite you to subscribe to our Substack newsletters to receive weekly articles, insights, and resources designed to support founders through every stage of the journey! Contact us: wisdompartners.llc/contact Subscribe to our Substack: blog.wisdompartners.llc Chapters (00:00) - Intro (01:55) - Modularizing insurance for main street employers (06:40) - Partnering with 18,000 clinical locations (07:34) - Commercial wins vs. 80% team retention (09:56) - Startup indigestion and the trap of early hype (11:40) - The brutal reality of health insurance sales cycles (16:36) - Conceptual alignment, commitment, contractual (20:47) - Maintaining team trust through workforce reductions (26:08) - Building intentional tension in the executive team (29:07) - Flattening the chain of communication (32:10) - Stop talking, start listening, serve others Links & Resources Guest: Jeb Dunkelberger, Founder & CEO of Coalition Health GroupGuest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jebdunkelberger/Guest Website: https://coalitionhealthgroup.com/ Referenced in the episode: ClearPoint (subsidiary of Coalition Health Group): https://getclearpoint.com/Freakonomics (Book / Podcast): https://freakonomics.com/ Keywords founders, entrepreneurship, health insurance, Coalition Health Group, self-funding, alternative funding, healthcare startup, sales operations, ICP, startup indigestion, leadership development, workforce reduction, company culture, executive coaching, startup scaling

    Why Over-Hiring Nearly Killed His Startup with Jeb Dunkelberger | Ep. 64
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About

A podcast for founders, by founders. We explore the real journey of building and growing a company. Each episode, we go beyond the highlight reel to unpack the strategies, decisions, and hard lessons that shaped successful businesses, revealing the good, the bad, and the ugly behind the growth.

Information

  • Creator
    Wisdom Partners
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    71
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Wisdom Partners
  • Show Website
    Founder Real Talk