Malcolm De Leo is the Co-founder and Chief Business Officer at GraphIQ, an innovation-first platform redefining how enterprises discover and connect with business intelligence. With a PhD in chemistry and a 20+ year career spanning Clorox, Orbital Insight, and Quantified, Malcolm has built a reputation for evangelizing innovation, data-driven transformation, and cultural change inside legacy organizations. In this episode, he shares how GraphIQ was born from repeated market frustration, and why the real unlock in AI isn’t the models—it’s the data.

In Today’s Episode We Discuss:

00:01 – Welcome & Guest Introduction

01:30 – Shifting from Science to Startups

03:00 – Lessons in Culture and Change from Big Companies

03:50 – The Origin Story of GraphIQ

05:00 – The “Aha Moment” Behind GraphIQ

06:50 – What Makes GraphIQ Different

09:45 – Go-To-Market Strategy and Ideal Customers

12:15 – The Forgotten Power of Data in the AI Boom

14:00 – Trust, Transparency & Attribution in AI Tools

15:00 – Happy Accidents & the Realities of Fundraising

18:00 – Balancing Revenue vs. Vision

20:20 – Product-Market Fit Frameworks

22:00 – Designing Culture on Purpose

25:00 – Remote Teams and Scaling Collaboration

26:00 – What VCs and Founders Get Wrong About Enterprise Sales

29:30 – Facing the Founder Mindset Shift

36:30 – The Next Chapter for GraphIQ

37:40 – The Future of Enterprise Intelligence

38:30 – Rapid Fire Round

44:50 – Lessons from Orbital Insight & Building Smarter

47:00 – Closing Thoughts & Where to Find Malcolm

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Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ignite-conversations-on-startups-venture-capital-tech/id1709248824

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Our sponsor Byldd⁠ helps non-technical domain-expert founders build and launch tech businesses by providing a complete product team - that's everyone you need from designers to engineers to testers, all the way up to a CTO.

We'll ship products while you focus on the other essentials: validation, sales, and distribution. Our portfolio companies have been backed by YC, Google, ERA, and other top-tier investors.

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Chris O'Neill is a seasoned tech executive with over 25 years of leadership experience at companies like Google, Glean, and Xero. As the current CEO of GrowthLoop and a board member at GAF, Chris brings deep expertise in AI, cloud, and go-to-market strategy. With a track record of navigating both wartime turnarounds and scaling peacetime operations, he offers a rare blend of operational rigor and visionary thinking. In this episode, he shares why the concept of “wartime vs. peacetime leadership” is outdated, how to truly identify product-market fit, and why agentic AI is set to revolutionize marketing and enterprise workflows. Chris also unpacks his journey from investor back to operator, what founders get wrong about board dynamics, and his vision for building a compound marketing flywheel at GrowthLoop. In Today’s Episode We Discuss: 00:01 – Welcome & Guest Intro: Chris O’Neill’s journey from Google to GrowthLoop 01:45 – Why "wartime vs. peacetime leadership" is outdated 03:25 – How competition woke up giants like Google and Microsoft 06:00 – What real product-market fit looks like (and how to measure it) 09:50 – Scaling after PMF: Go-to-market strategy as a system 10:45 – Why AI is underhyped and marketing workflows are next 12:40 – The rise of agentic AI and fall of legacy marketing stacks 15:30 – AI doing the work vs. SaaS enabling the work 18:20 – How GrowthLoop bootstrapped from Google to enterprise customers 21:55 – Rebuilding the marketing stack around the data cloud 24:30 – Personalization at scale: recreating the small-town customer experience 26:25 – Replacing soul-sucking tasks with AI-powered teammates 31:20 – Agents on both sides: AI as the new brand-consumer interface 33:15 – The vision for GrowthLoop: compound marketing and 1:1 experiences 38:20 – What great board governance actually looks like 41:20 – Building effective go-to-market systems across geographies 44:30 – Operator vs. investor mindset: lessons from both sides 48:30 – How AI may reshape the venture capital landscape 51:20 – The biggest mistakes in turnarounds, boards, and team building 54:00 – Chris’s book recommendations, tools he's excited about, and what keeps him up at nightSubscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/ignite-podcastSubscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ignite-conversations-on-startups-venture-capital-tech/id1709248824Follow Chris O'Neill on X: https://x.com/croneill/Follow Chris O'Neill on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/croneill/Follow Team Ignite on X: https://twitter.com/ignitevcFollow Brian on X: https://x.com/brianrbellFollow Brian on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bblinkedin/Visit Our Website: https://www.teamignite.venturesSubscribe to Our Newsletter: https://insights.teamignite.ventures/👂🎧 Watch, listen, and follow on your favorite platform: https://tr.ee/S2ayrbx_fL 🙏 Join the conversation on your favorite social network: https://linktr.ee/theignitepodcast//Our sponsor Byldd⁠ helps non-technical domain-expert founders build and launch tech businesses by providing a complete product team - that's everyone you need from designers to engineers to testers, all the way up to a CTO.We'll ship products while you focus on the other essentials: validation, sales, and distribution. Our portfolio companies have been backed by YC, Google, ERA, and other top-tier investors.Get Started Here: https://tr.ee/bylld

Oliver Libby is the co-founding Managing Partner of H/L Ventures and City Rock Venture Partners. With nearly two decades of experience backing high-impact, mission-driven startups, he has pioneered a unique venture studio model rooted in daily active engagement. He's also the co-founder and Chair of the Resolution Project, which has helped launch over 1,000 social ventures around the world. In this episode, he offers a deep dive into values-driven investing, the future of venture capital, and the importance of aligning profit with purpose.

In Today’s Episode We Discuss:

00:01 – From Military History to Mission-Driven VC

02:45 – Family Values and a Lifelong Commitment to Impact

05:00 – The H/L Ventures Model: Daily Engagement, Real Value

09:30 – Why Traditional VC Is Broken

14:00 – Profit Meets Purpose: The New Investment Thesis

17:00 – “Controversial” Impact Bets: Defense, Cybersecurity, Law Enforcement

19:10 – AI, Automation, and the Future of Jobs

21:50 – The Rise of the Creator Economy & Entrepreneurial Resilience

26:25 – Sci-Fi, Star Trek, and the Ethics of Abundance

31:57 – Rebuilding the American Dream: Floor and No Ceiling

39:00 – Should VCs Solve Global Problems?

44:00 – Sustainability Through Innovation, Not Austerity

46:42 – Reinventing VC: Specialization, Collaboration, and Platforms

48:30 – The Resolution Project: 1,000 Ventures, $3K at a Time

54:00 – Billion-Dollar Outcomes from Micro Grants

56:13 – Leadership Lessons from the Frontlines of Impact

59:35 – Why Networking Is the Last Unautomated Skill

Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/ignite-podcast

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ignite-conversations-on-startups-venture-capital-tech/id1709248824

Follow Oliver Libby on X: https://x.com/OliverBLibby

Follow Oliver Libby on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/olibby/

Follow Team Ignite on X: https://twitter.com/ignitevc

Follow Brian on X: https://x.com/brianrbell

Follow Brian on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bblinkedin/

Visit Our Website: https://www.teamignite.ventures

Subscribe to Our Newsletter: https://insights.teamignite.ventures/

👂🎧 Watch, listen, and follow on your favorite platform: https://tr.ee/S2ayrbx_fL

🙏 Join the conversation on your favorite social network: https://linktr.ee/theignitepodcast

//

Our sponsor Byldd⁠ helps non-technical domain-expert founders build and launch tech businesses by providing a complete product team - that's everyone you need from designers to engineers to testers, all the way up to a CTO.

We'll ship products while you focus on the other essentials: validation, sales, and distribution. Our portfolio companies have been backed by YC, Google, ERA, and other top-tier investors.

Get Started Here: https://tr.ee/bylld