EPISODE 13

Kevin Henrikson and Jason Shafton sit down with serial entrepreneur Dennis Mortensen (IndexTools, Visual Revenue, x.ai, and now LaunchBrightly) to unpack what it was really like to build an AI company years before large-language models existed. Dennis recounts owning the x.ai domain before Elon Musk, hand-labeling 32 million emails to train an early scheduling agent, and the costly product-design decisions that followed. He shares hard-won lessons on focusing on pain over technology, reverse-engineering post-acquisition goals, and why parenting teenagers is the ultimate sales boot camp. Dennis then introduces LaunchBrightly, his new platform that automates every product screenshot in your help center—and he caps the chat with an exclusive free-setup offer for Founder Mode listeners.

CHAPTERS

00:00 – x.ai Before Elon

01:34 – Hand-Labeling 32 Million Emails

05:45 – Product Design > Prediction Precision

14:45 – Birth of LaunchBrightly

29:56 – Special Offer & Next Steps

OFFER
Mention “Founder Mode” when you connect with LaunchBrightly to get your first batch of up to 1,000 automated screenshot-update recipes created for free.

Connect with Dennis
LaunchBrightly • LinkedIn • X/Twitter

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LinkedIn • X/Twitter

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LinkedIn • X/Twitter

EPISODE 12

From building gravity-defying camera rigs for Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity to sending drones into live nuclear reactors and, most recently, designing job-site robots that can survive the dust and chaos of construction, Asa Hammond’s career shows how precision engineering and artistic vision can coexist. In this conversation, Asa explains how the exacting pixel-perfect discipline of Hollywood VFX became the blueprint for ultra-reliable industrial robotics, why safety and repeatability always come before flashy features, and how new UX layers—voice, LLMs, demonstration learning—are finally making complex machines feel like familiar tools. Along the way, we hear tales of full-scale “stunt-double” reactors, the reality of folding-laundry robots, and what it takes to assemble a world-class, T-shaped engineering team that thrives at the edge of possibility.

CHAPTERS

00:29 – From Film Sets to Founders: Show Intro

02:12 – Asa’s Hollywood-to-Hard-Hats Origin Story

05:57 – Engineering Robots for Gravity

09:05 – Reinventing Construction with Industrial Arms

15:56 – Flying Drones Inside Nuclear Reactors

LINKS

Connect with Asa Hammond

Website • LinkedIn • X/Twitter

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LinkedIn • X/Twitter

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EPISODE 11

From hand-carving a single silicone spatula in her kitchen to running a portfolio of revived consumer brands, Sam Rose walks Kevin and Jason through the through-line of her career: obsess over the customer, build a brand (not just a product), and make logistics as lovable as design. She explains how a “collision with the customer” on Kickstarter forced her into customer-service mode before she even had inventory, why color stories beat strict SKU rationalization, what the GIR sale to Pattern taught her about single-channel risk, and how vertical integration led to Manifest’s 3PL and the launch of Endless Commerce. Sam also breaks down AI’s role in just-in-time inventory, predicts an LLM-powered shopping future that both excites and unnerves her, and offers two free months of her commerce OS to fellow founders.

CHAPTERS

00:00 – Collision with the Customer & Kickstarter Lessons

02:44 – Scaling GIR: Color Stories vs. SKU Discipline

07:32 – Acquisition Insights: Building a Balanced Brand Portfolio

09:54 – Manifest & the Cost of Learning Curves

13:03 – Endless Commerce and AI-Driven Supply Chains

OFFER

Get two months free on any tier and free onboarding to Endless Commerce when you mention the Founder Mode podcast or that Jason & Kevin sent you!

LINKS

Connect with Samantha Rose

endlesscommerce.com • LinkedIn • X/Twitter

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Connect with Kevin

LinkedIn • X/Twitter

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LinkedIn • X/Twitter