The Migie Labs Podcast

Zuwa Omigie
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  • Entrepreneurship

Insightful conversations with founders and investors in fintech, commerce, and AI. I'm Zuwa Omigie, the host. I led engineering teams at Coinbase and Shopify and now run Migie Labs. • Founder stories: the pivots, near-misses, and wins behind building a company • Growth and funding: raising capital and finding product-market fit • AI and tech stack: how AI is changing the way companies build and operate • Payments and commerce: how money moves, from checkout to stablecoins Past guests include Andela co-founder Nadayar Enegesi, Sonata One CEO Tim Andrews, and Insight7 founder Odun Odubanjo.

  1. Oct 25

    Why a Shopify & Dropbox Alum Built AI for Plumbers | Gustavo Sanchez

    What happens when a plumber misses your call? Gustavo Sanchez says you call the next one in line, and the job's gone. He's the founder and CEO of Booked, whose AI answers calls, texts and emails for trades and property managers. In our conversation, he explains: ■ The Cost of a Missed Call: For a roofer, one missed call can mean a $10,000 to $15,000 job. Over a year, he puts the loss at $20,000 to a couple hundred thousand dollars. ■ Big-Company Tech, Small-Business Prices: The deepest customization usually goes to enterprise companies. Booked's plans start at $149 CAD a month, posted on its site. ■ Selling AI to Skeptics: Many trades got burned by software vendors before. No contracts and a money-back guarantee help win them over. ■ Two Weeks Off: A franchise owner who hadn't taken a vacation in a long time went to Europe while Booked's agent took his calls. ■ Resist the Impulse: When bad news hits, don't decide on emotion. His reminder to himself: "I can figure this out." 00:00 Intro 01:19 From Venezuela to a Career in Tech 03:04 When to Build Your Own Company 10:14 The Problem Booked Solves 15:10 Trades and Property Managers 15:38 What a Missed Call Really Costs 19:20 Selling AI to Skeptical Trades 23:00 A Day in the Life of a Startup CEO 25:53 What Keeps Him Up at Night 27:44 His Advice for Founders 30:56 Where Booked Will Be in Five Years 31:52 How to Try Booked's AI Agent Try Booked's AI agent: Demo line - (343) 803-6095 Website - https://www.bookedworks.com Follow Gustavo: LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/gustavojsm/ Booked on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/bookedworks/ The Migie Labs Podcast: Insightful conversations with founders and investors in fintech, commerce, and AI. Follow the show so you don't miss the next one. YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@MigieLabs LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/migielabs/ Website - https://migielabs.com

  2. Oct 19

    Why Sports Data Misses Female Fans | Ashima Chopra

    Who's missing from your customer data? Ashima Chopra found that over 30% of the women at her early FanVerse events had never watched the sport, and she turned them into fans. In our conversation, she explains:■ Not a Coder, Still First Place: She won a national AI hackathon with no coding background. That's where FanVerse came to life.■ When the Market Reaches Out: After she won, people who'd filled in her survey asked if she was actually launching FanVerse.■ Data Outside the Gates: Teams lean on emails, CRMs and ticketing. Women experience sports through beauty, lifestyle, culture and fashion.■ Solve Today's Problem: Big problems can wait. Find the buyer who feels the need most acutely right now.■ Why Funding Women Pays: BCG found women-founded startups generate 78 cents of revenue per dollar of funding, against 31 cents for male-founded ones. 00:00 Intro00:58 From Lawyer to AI Hackathon Winner05:43 What Sports Data Misses About Women06:57 How Fans Differ From City to City08:49 The Only Girl on an All-Boys Team11:07 How FanVerse Uses AI13:47 Her Day-to-Day: Keep Showing Up16:06 What Keeps Her Up at Night17:16 Why Teams May Not Be Her First Client19:33 Finding the Buyer Who Needs It Most23:03 Raising Capital as a Female Founder28:05 Why Funding Women Is Smart Business29:18 Growth Questions vs Risk Questions30:27 Her Advice for Early Founders Follow Ashima:LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashima-chopra-ac/FanVerse - https://wearefanverse.comFanVerse on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/wearefanverseInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/wearefanverse The Migie Labs Podcast:Insightful conversations with founders and investors in fintech, commerce, and AI. Follow the show so you don't miss the next one.YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@MigieLabsLinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/migielabs/Website - https://migielabs.com

  3. Oct 12

    Why Your Startup's Product is Already Obsolete (Ex-Investor Explains)

    What would you do if your startup went from break-even to losing money in two days? That's what the war in Ukraine did to Neofin. Svitlanka Sergiichuk, now its CEO, joined to drive the pivot. In our conversation, she explains:■ Product Is Temporary: "If there's a founder with a will, there always will be a way."■ Get Comfortable Selling: Early on, nobody can sell your business better than you.■ Bootstrap First: If you're a B2B founder and can bootstrap to $1M in revenue, do it.■ The Hobby Test: No revenue yet? Then it's still a hobby. 00:00 Intro01:00 From Linguist to Investor to CEO04:35 Neofin's Lego Blocks for Lending08:24 2022: The War and "Pivot or Go Home"10:23 Why Product Is Temporary14:57 Why Big Merchants Outgrow Pay in 418:01 A Day in the Life of a Fintech CEO20:21 What Keeps Her Up at Night21:40 Why Your First $5M Is Founder-Driven24:00 Finding Customers: SEO and Accelerators28:33 Bootstrapping vs. VC for B2B Founders31:21 Business or Hobby? Her Parting Advice Follow Svitlanka:LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/svitlanaromaniuk/Neofin - https://neo-fin.com The Migie Labs Podcast:Insightful conversations with founders and investors in fintech, commerce, and AI. Follow the show so you don't miss the next one.YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@MigieLabsLinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/migielabs/Website - https://migielabs.com

  4. Mar 3

    The $100M Master Plan to Rebuild African Cities 🏙️ | Andela Co-Founder Nadayar Enegesi

    Would you leave Canada on a one-way flight to build a company back home? Nadayar Enegesi did after seven years away and co-founded Andela. Now he's building Eden Life to make daily life in Lagos easier. In our conversation, he explains:■ Fail Upwards: "Where you are today is the worst that you would ever be."■ Why Money Shrinks: Paper money loses value every year. Bitcoin, he says, solves that.■ Grit Comes First: "This game is heavily dependent on grit." A massive purpose keeps you going.■ What Investors Miss: One investor passed because New Jersey's GDP is bigger than Nigeria's. 00:00 Intro00:54 From Nigeria to Waterloo to Andela02:44 Why Founders Fail Upwards04:30 How Andela's Six Co-Founders Met06:48 From a $100M City Dream to Eden Life13:24 Why He's Bullish on Bitcoin and Base18:44 Crypto's Next Use Cases in Nigeria22:17 His Three-Task Daily Routine26:19 How Eden Life Wins B2B Customers29:13 What He'd Change at Eden Life31:26 Grit and a Massive Purpose35:04 Why Silicon Valley Lights Money on Fire36:47 What Investors Get Wrong About Nigeria Follow Nadayar:LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nadayar/Eden Life - https://ouredenlife.com The Migie Labs Podcast:Insightful conversations with founders and investors in fintech, commerce, and AI. Follow the show so you don't miss the next one.YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@MigieLabsLinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/migielabs/Website - https://migielabs.com

  5. Feb 23

    Why This Ex-Shopify Lead Banned "A.I." From His Website

    Why aren't businesses adopting AI as fast as LinkedIn says? Odun Odubanjo, founder of Insight7, explains what's slowing them down. He and I built a Shopify Hack Days project that made it into production. In our conversation, he explains:■ AI Is a Given: Insight7 is AI native, yet you won't find "AI" on its website.■ What Buyers Want: Security, reliability and ease of use. And they come to the meeting informed.■ Direct Feedback: Without feedback on their performance, how will anyone improve?■ Give It Two Years: It typically takes about two years to build a product customers will pay for. 00:00 Intro00:59 Why He Chose to Control His Outcomes02:44 What Insight7 Does, Four Years In04:53 AI Native, With No AI on the Website06:41 Why AI Adoption Is Slower Than the Hype09:56 Too Many Startups, Confused Buyers13:37 A Day That Starts at 4 AM16:19 What He Took From Shopify19:06 Planning Ahead and Hiring Humble People23:54 Advice: Skip the Hype, Give It 2 Years Follow Odun:Insight7 - https://insight7.io The Migie Labs Podcast:Insightful conversations with founders and investors in fintech, commerce, and AI. Follow the show so you don't miss the next one.YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@MigieLabsLinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/migielabs/Website - https://migielabs.com

  6. Feb 9

    From Google's AI Privacy Lead to Startup CTO | Omi Iyamu's Tech Journey & Startup Lessons

    Should you buy ads the day you launch? Omi Iyamu, who spent most of his career at Google and is now CTO of Panio, calls ads gasoline. If there's no fire yet, you're wasting money. In our conversation, he explains:■ Cut Before You Add: After you launch, look for features to remove from the product.■ Find 10 People: Can't find 10 people with the problem? "Don't go further until you find 10 people."■ Check the Graveyard: Find out who tried your idea before, and what killed them.■ Name Your Assumptions: An assumption you treat as fact "is going to kill you every single time." 00:00 Intro00:57 Microsoft, Google, Crypto, Then AI04:12 What's Really Changed in AI08:17 A New Health Product for Dogs11:44 Is Pet Health Regulated?14:08 A Coding CTO on Cutting Features19:09 The Only Two Metrics After Launch21:40 Ads Are Gasoline: Find the Fire First23:36 Launch to an Audience You Built25:49 Problem-Solution Fit Comes First29:02 The Assumption That Kills Startups30:34 Find 10 People, Check the Graveyard The Migie Labs Podcast:Insightful conversations with founders and investors in fintech, commerce, and AI. Follow the show so you don't miss the next one.YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@MigieLabsLinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/migielabs/Website - https://migielabs.com

  7. Feb 2

    What happens when stablecoins, Salesforce, and AI automation collide?

    Where should a company's crypto wallet live if it can't sit on someone's phone? Alex Hochberger, CEO and founder of Web3 Enabler, brings stablecoin payments into Salesforce. His goal: make crypto boring. In our conversation, he explains:■ Corporations Are People Too: A payroll wallet has to belong to the company, with approvals and a log of who did what.■ Stablecoins Are Ready Now: Moving money globally in seconds is "the first real use case to spin out of crypto."■ AI Needs Certainty: "AI needs certainty. I need to know that I've paid or not paid."■ Compare Like to Like: Learn from founders whose path looks like yours. 00:00 Intro01:34 From CreditCards.com CTO to Web303:05 Why Corporations Are People Too05:03 Where Stablecoins Are Taking Off06:37 Crypto's First Real Use Case10:02 Why AI Needs Blockchain's Certainty15:28 A Day in the Life of a Web3 Founder19:09 Architect, Marketer and Educator26:14 What He'd Do Differently27:22 The AI Shift That Keeps Him Up30:27 Advice: Pick Role Models Like You Follow Alex:Web3 Enabler - https://web3enabler.com The Migie Labs Podcast:Insightful conversations with founders and investors in fintech, commerce, and AI. Follow the show so you don't miss the next one.YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@MigieLabsLinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/migielabs/Website - https://migielabs.com

  8. Jan 26

    Everyone Is Wrong About AI | Nicholas Mitsakos on Finance, Power & Reality

    Is Tesla an AI platform worth a trillion dollars, or just a car company? Nicholas Mitsakos, founder and CEO of Arcadia Capital Group, puts every new technology to the same test: is it a business? In our conversation, he explains:■ Business Discipline: "Technological innovation in and of itself is not a business."■ The AGI Hype: He wrote three or four years ago that AGI isn't coming, and he believes it even more now.■ Back the Arms Dealers: Nvidia is "the world's best arms dealer" because everyone fighting the AI wars needs it.■ Start With the We: Pick the right people first. They'll find the right why. 00:00 Intro00:19 From Wall Street to Entrepreneur04:03 AI Is a Tool That Makes Tools12:19 Why He Doubts the Race to AGI14:28 Can AI Create Something New?17:09 The Flaw in Efficient Markets20:18 Prediction Markets, Nvidia and Tesla27:32 A Blank Sheet of Paper Every Day32:33 What Keeps Him Up at Night36:20 The One Thing He'd Change39:49 Advice: Start With the We Follow Nicholas:Arcadia Capital Group - https://arcadiacapitalgroup.com The Migie Labs Podcast:Insightful conversations with founders and investors in fintech, commerce, and AI. Follow the show so you don't miss the next one.YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@MigieLabsLinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/migielabs/Website - https://migielabs.com

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About

Insightful conversations with founders and investors in fintech, commerce, and AI. I'm Zuwa Omigie, the host. I led engineering teams at Coinbase and Shopify and now run Migie Labs. • Founder stories: the pivots, near-misses, and wins behind building a company • Growth and funding: raising capital and finding product-market fit • AI and tech stack: how AI is changing the way companies build and operate • Payments and commerce: how money moves, from checkout to stablecoins Past guests include Andela co-founder Nadayar Enegesi, Sonata One CEO Tim Andrews, and Insight7 founder Odun Odubanjo.

Information

  • Creator
    Zuwa Omigie
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    14
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Zuwa Omigie
  • Show Website
    The Migie Labs Podcast