AI and machine learning - We Built It Because We Had To

Jul 30, 2026 41:13 S1E28

From Government CISO to AI-Native Security Founder (Robert Wood)

Founder stories, tech, startups, entrepreneurship, business, business growth AI and machine learning Cybersecurity Career transitions

His hardest problem wasn't hackers — it was a 500-person security organization whose specialist teams couldn't speak the same language.In this episode of We Built It Because We Had To, …

Jul 02, 2026 42:59 S1E24

He Skipped School Until 25 — Now He's Building AI Governance for 48% of the Economy (Callen Sapien)

Founder stories, tech, startups, entrepreneurship, business, business growth AI and machine learning Data and analytics

In this episode, I'm joined by Callen Sapien, CEO and Co-Founder of Synthreo. We talk about how he and his co-founders built a multi-tenant, model-agnostic AI governance and consumption platform …

Jun 16, 2026 24:40 S1E19

2 Million Autonomous Fixes In PayPal Production — Then He Spun It Out (Suresh Mathew)

Founder stories, tech, startups, entrepreneurship, business, business growth AI and machine learning Infrastructure and DevOps

What happens when cloud deployment outpaces the humans managing it? At PayPal, Suresh Mathew's team built the answer — an autonomous system that ran 2 million production remediations before he …

Jun 11, 2026 16:21 S1E18

Why AI Data Centers Could Break the U.S. Power Grid | Michael Parrella

Founder stories, tech, startups, entrepreneurship, business, business growth AI and machine learning

AI data centers are hitting the U.S. power grid like five-gigawatt toasters — and unlike Bitcoin, that demand can never be switched off.In this episode, I sit down with Michael …

May 26, 2026 23:10 S1E13

AGE: The 4th Axis the AGI Conversation Is Missing | Rana Gujral

AI and machine learning

🎙 Season 1, Episode 13Rana Gujral thinks the AGI conversation is missing a fourth axis: Artificial General Experience (AGE). On this episode of We Built It Because We Had To, …

May 19, 2026 22:21 S1E11

Laid Off by the DoE — Then He Built an AI Startup | David Blumenthal

Founder stories, tech, startups, entrepreneurship, business, business growth AI and machine learning Career transitions

When the U.S. Department of Education was dismantled, David Blumenthal lost his 13-year career as an education researcher in a single March 2025 Zoom call. Three weeks later, his daughter …

May 15, 2026 15:00 S1E10

The EdTech Founder Bootstrapping AI for Higher Ed (Preeti Tanwar)

Founder stories, tech, startups, entrepreneurship, business, business growth AI and machine learning

In this episode, I'm joined by Preeti Tanwar, founder of HiEd Success, an Atlanta-based IT consulting firm and social enterprise serving US colleges and universities in data analytics and AI. …

May 04, 2026 18:08 S1E5

From Coca-Cola & Unilever to an AI Startup at 60 (Stan Sthanunathan)

Founder stories, tech, startups, entrepreneurship, business, business growth AI and machine learning Career transitions

Stan is a rare kind of founder. He spent decades at the highest levels of enterprise consumer insights, including a long senior tenure at Unilever and significant work at Coca-Cola, …

May 04, 2026 14:11 S1E3

300% Year-Over-Year: The AI Content Machine for Law Firms (John Fly)

Founder stories, tech, startups, entrepreneurship, business, business growth AI and machine learning Sales and marketing

In this episode, I'm joined by John Fly, CTO of FirmPilot — a VC-backed AI platform automating marketing for law firms. John shares how 30 years in tech (starting as …