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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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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LinkedIn • X/Twitter

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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LinkedIn • X/Twitter

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LinkedIn • X/Twitter

EPISODE 10

Serial CTO and Acompli co-founder JJ Zhuang joins Kevin and Jason to explain why the next generation of great products will be built by tiny, AI-super-powered teams. He unpacks lessons from taking Acompli’s first line of code to a $200 million Microsoft exit, steering Instacart through pandemic hyper-growth, and relearning to code with tools like GitHub Copilot, Cursor and Devin now writing the majority of his team’s code. Along the way JJ outlines the shift from hiring stack specialists to adaptable generalists, the rise of agentic “AI teammates,” and his mantra of “fast software” that lets founders prototype, test and ship at the speed of imagination—while still cutting through the 2025 hype cycle around agents and other buzzwords.

CHAPTERS

00:00 – Shots Fired: Surprising Start & Show Kick-off

01:52 – From Acompli to Outlook: Building All-Star Teams

06:11 – Instacart’s Pandemic Sprint & Early AI Adoption

11:50 – Pair-Programming vs. Agentic Devs: Devin, Cursor & More

22:12 – Fast Software & Filtering the 2025 AI Hype

LINKS

Connect with JJ Zhuang

LinkedIn • X/Twitter

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LinkedIn • X/Twitter

RESOURCES

GitHub Copilot

v0

Devin

Cursor

Windsurf

Augment

OpenAI Codex

EPISODE 9

Megan Berry—architect, pop-up pioneer, and Mentors Fund partner—shows DTC founders how to move from clicks to bricks without torching cash. She explains her 8-foot-by-50-square-foot kiosk “permit hack,” the KPIs (unaided brand awareness, repeat engagement, dwell-time hot spots) that justify a multimillion-dollar flagship, and why post-COVID stores should feel like friction-free showrooms, not inventory caves. The talk digs into festival activations, cadence-matched merchandising, omni-channel partnerships that now include hotels and Pilates studios, AI-powered journey tracking, and practical founder advice on conserving runway while staying crazy-creative.

CHAPTERS

00:00 – Permit Hack & Pop-Up Spark

06:46 – KPIs That Green-Light a Flagship

12:51 – Post-COVID, Low-Friction Store Design

19:17 – Omnichannel Expansion & Partnerships

26:25 – AI, Cash Efficiency & Founder Advice

LINKS

Connect with Megan Berry

LinkedIn

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LinkedIn • X/Twitter

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LinkedIn • X/Twitter

EPISODE 8

In this episode, serial entrepreneur Ritwik Pavan joins Kevin Henrikson and Jason Shafton to explore the rise of AI-first product design and its profound implications on consumer hardware, smart cities, and modular construction. They discuss the essential strategies founders need to adopt, including the importance of hyper-personalization, overcoming challenges in training data, untapped opportunities in lifestyle and public safety sectors, and why AI is turning hardware into recurring revenue businesses.

CHAPTERS

00:34 – What It Means to Build AI-First

03:53 – Ritwik’s Journey and AI Consumer Innovations

08:41 – Smart Cities, AI, and the Future of Urban Life

17:08 – Modular Construction and AI’s Role in Housing

22:20 – Underrated Opportunities: Lifestyle and Public Safety

LINKS

Connect with Ritwik Pavan

Hardware Harold • LinkedIn • X/Twitter

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LinkedIn • X/Twitter

EPISODE 7

In this episode, seasoned marketing leader Peter Farago shares zero-to-one marketing insights for early-stage startups, emphasizing empathy, iterative messaging, and organic inbound strategies. Drawing on experiences from Flurry, Acompli, and RunLLM, Peter highlights the importance of a clear value proposition, building brand credibility, and leveraging customer feedback loops. He also addresses AI’s evolving role in marketing, reassuring listeners that AI won’t replace jobs but will reshape how marketers operate. Packed with tangible advice, this conversation offers a roadmap for founders seeking to refine their product, storytelling, and growth approach in crowded markets.

CHAPTERS

00:00 – Introducing Peter Farago and the Power of Empathy

01:34 – Zero-to-One Marketing Fundamentals

08:03 – Lessons from Acompli’s Early Growth

16:42 – Leveraging Customer Feedback and Iteration

29:04 – AI’s Evolving Role in Marketing

LINKS

Connect with Peter Farago

runllm.com • LinkedIn • X/Twitter • Podcast

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LinkedIn • X/Twitter

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LinkedIn • X/Twitter

EPISODE 6