Startup Hustle

“Building your own software is like adopting a puppy. Most companies don’t want to adopt a whole litter of them, they buy software to eliminate problems, not create new ones.”I talked with Spencer Thomason, founder and CEO of StartupHakk, on Startup Hustle this week. Spencer runs a three-headed beast: a YouTube channel pulling millions of views a year, a licensed apprenticeship that trains developers from zero, and a consulting shop now spinning off its own AI products.Here’s what you’ll get out of it:⚡ Why AI made writing code the easy part, and why security, hosting, and maintaining large codebases are now the real work⚡ The “adopting a puppy” test for when to build vs. buy, and why Full Scale moved to HubSpot instead of rolling its own⚡ Why we’re at “the PC moment all over again,” with every boardroom demanding AI and nobody sure how to integrate it⚡ Why small, local models are becoming a commodity, and how Spencer runs a 90-billion-parameter model on an eight-year-old GPU⚡ The data-privacy reckoning he predicts for regulated industries, and why some clients will never put data in the cloudIf you’re building software, running a consulting shop, or figuring out how to actually use AI, this one is worth your time.Listen to the Startup Hustle podcast anywhere you listen to podcasts!⏱️ Episode Breakdown00:31 Meet Spencer Thomason and Startup Hack02:32 A business spanning training, consulting, and products04:52 Open Mono Agent and the push to build with AI07:29 Why code generation isn’t the hard part anymore10:47 Building secure AI workflows for small law firms12:50 AI prototypes create demand for software expertise16:23 Who can actually get value from AI tools?18:54 Local models, privacy, and avoiding vendor lock-in20:32 Running AI on consumer and older GPUs23:55 Private infrastructure and potential legal risks25:11 The pace of AI and the risk of burnout27:06 Models become commodities as AI moves into hardware29:02 Spencer’s advice: start using AILinks & ResourcesConnect with Spencer Thomason on LinkedInStartupHakk - https://www.startuphakk.com/Open Mono Agent (free, open source) - https://openmonoagent.ai/Full Scale – Build your dev team quickly and affordablyIf you’re trying to get your team out of the basement and into real product ownership, this episode is your playbook. Stop being a ticket factory. Build teams that think, create, and lead.

"There are eight digital banks trying to build the Chime of the Philippines. No one's building the Ramp or the Brex. That's the opportunity."I talked with Zach Marks, founder and CEO of Jia, on Startup Hustle this week. Jia is building modern digital banking for small businesses in emerging markets, starting in the Philippines, powered by an AI credit engine that turns messy, handwritten paperwork into an underwriting decision in minutes instead of weeks.Here's what you'll get out of it:⚡ Why small businesses in emerging markets are so underserved, and why banks there take zero risk while asking founders to put their house up as collateral⚡ How Zach went from teaching English and befriending samosa vendors in India to launching fintech markets across 15+ countries⚡ How Jia's AI credit engine cuts a three-week manual underwriting file down to minutes, with a low non-performing loan rate⚡ The real story of doing business in the Philippines, from BIR shakedowns to why the best local talent still beats every other emerging market⚡ Why building a strong local culture and hiring leaders who embody it matters more than anything when you hire abroadIf you're building in fintech, emerging markets, or with an offshore team, this one is worth your time.Listen to the Startup Hustle podcast anywhere you listen to podcasts!⏱️ Episode Breakdown01:16 Introduction and Guest Background02:20 Starting in Construction and Key Clients03:24 The Inspiration Behind the Book04:23 Early Life Challenges and Lessons Learned07:03 Common Entrepreneurial Traits and Backgrounds09:38 Key Lessons from the Book10:27 Business Lessons for Tech Entrepreneurs11:55 Impact of AI on Construction and Design13:50 Acquiring Big Name Clients and Referrals16:24 Building a Scalable Business Model18:24 The Power of Case Studies and Content Marketing20:05 Showcasing Work Through Content and Videos24:00 Final Advice and Closing RemarksLinks & ResourcesConnect with Zach Marks on LinkedInJia - https://jia.xyz/Full Scale – Build your dev team quickly and affordablyIf you're trying to get your team out of the basement and into real product ownership, this episode is your playbook. Stop being a ticket factory. Build teams that think, create, and lead.Unlock working capital with Jia

"There's no magical growth lever. You just do a good job, every day, for 23 years, and the referrals do the rest."I talked with Matt Watts, founder of MWA Projects and author of Made With Ambition, on Startup Hustle this week. Matt designs and builds some of the most striking commercial spaces in the world, from Jimmy Choo's London HQ to Nike showrooms, Net-a-Porter, and a new lounge for Netflix.Here's what you'll get out of it:⚡ Why there's no magic growth lever, and how one great job snowballed into Nike, Hermès, ASOS, and Stella McCartney through pure referral⚡ How a difficult childhood and a bitter divorce shaped the risk appetite so many entrepreneurs share, playing not to lose instead of playing to win⚡ The AI horror story where a tool invented 10 years of Harrods experience for his head of facilities "because it thought it sounded better"⚡ Why case studies are the mistake too many founders skip, and how showing beats telling in a visual business⚡ Why the CEO has to drive the marketing, and why "TikTok next week" is now on the agenda⏱️ Episode Breakdown00:48 Introduction and Guest Background01:52 Starting in Construction and Key Clients03:18 The Inspiration Behind the Book03:55 Early Life Challenges and Lessons Learned06:35 Common Entrepreneurial Traits and Backgrounds09:09 Key Lessons from the Book09:59 Business Lessons for Tech Entrepreneurs11:27 Impact of AI on Construction and Design13:22 Acquiring Big Name Clients and Referrals15:56 Building a Scalable Business Model17:56 The Power of Case Studies and Content Marketing19:37 Showcasing Work Through Content and Videos23:32 Final Advice and Closing RemarksLinks & ResourcesConnect with Matt Watts on LinkedInWebsite: MWA ProjectsWhat Smart CTOs Are Doing Differently With Offshore Teams in 2025Subscribe to the Global Talent SprintFull Scale – Build your dev team quickly and affordablyIf you're building a business the slow, durable way, this one is worth your time.Listen to the Startup Hustle podcast anywhere you listen to podcasts!

"Both things are true. Software jobs are projected to grow 15%, and 74% of employers say they can't fill the roles. That's the whole story of IT staffing in 2026."This week on Startup Hustle, Matt Brown, Full Scale's head of marketing, put me in the guest chair to walk through our new State of IT Staffing report, a data-heavy look at where tech hiring actually stands heading into 2026.Here's what you'll get out of it:⚡ The 2026 paradox, why the field isn't shrinking but the entry ramp into it is breaking, with new-grad hiring down 65% at big tech⚡ Why the job shifted from "engineering" back to "development," and why AI made product thinking the scarce skill⚡ Why AI sped up the typing but left the judgment exactly as hard, so the value moved to senior people⚡ Why retention is the number the industry can't fake, and why AI turned it from nice-to-have into the whole game⚡ Why software has never been cheaper to build, and why that's a reason to build more, not cutIf you're hiring engineers, leading a team, or building a career in software, this one is worth your time.⏱️ Episode Breakdown00:33 Introduction and overview of the episode02:39 Full scale's employee satisfaction and recognition05:30 The impact of AI on software development roles10:40 The 2026 paradox: job growth vs. role filling15:35 The importance of product thinking and customer feedback20:36 Decoupling headcount from output with AI25:21 Remote work, location independence, and cultural shifts30:37 Running engineering teams in 2026 and beyond35:35 The need for strategic focus and organizational agility40:37 Conclusion and key takeaways from the episodeLinks & ResourcesRead the full report - [https://fullscale.io/blog/state-of-it-staffing/Full Scale(https://fullscale.io/blog/state-of-it-staffing) – Build your dev team quickly and affordablyWhat Smart CTOs Are Doing Differently With Offshore Teams in 2025Subscribe to the Global Talent SprintIf you're trying to get your team out of the basement and into real product ownership, this episode is your playbook. Stop being a ticket factory. Build teams that think, create, and lead.

"AI scribes are just a feature. The record of clinical judgment is the moat."I talked with Kush Shah, founder and CEO of Noted Dent, on Startup Hustle this week. Noted Dent uses AI to handle clinical documentation for dentists, so practitioners aren't stuck writing notes at 11pm or on the weekend, and so they're covered when the auditors and health funds come knocking.Here's what you'll get out of it:⚡ Why vibe coding gets you to an MVP and no further, and why Kush deleted 8,000 lines of AI-generated code in three months⚡ Why the job of a software engineer has changed, and how AI has actually made it more human⚡ Why demand, not product, is the hardest thing in any business, even eight years in⚡ Why startups are the best place for young engineers to learn, and why job-title silos hold them back⚡ What actually makes the leap to CEO so hard when you come from a technical backgroundIf you're a technical founder, an engineer eyeing your next move, or anyone building in a regulated space, this one is worth your time.Listen to the Startup Hustle podcast anywhere you listen to podcasts!⏱️ Episode Breakdown01:06 Introduction and Anthony Jackson's background02:47 Is software development dead again?03:48 The impact of AI on coding and human judgment04:41 The importance of responsibility in software development06:33 The challenge of product management and customer feedback10:52 Transitioning from individual contributor to manager12:00 Building effective teams and leadership culture15:14 Anthony Jackson's leadership OS book and approach19:00 The significance of company and team culture21:41 The impact of good and bad managers22:06 Anthony Jackson's newsletter and coaching23:48 Connecting software developers with customers25:40 Empathy for users and understanding their experience29:06 Where to find Anthony Jackson's resources and booksLinks & ResourcesConnect with Kush Shah on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kush-shah-kush/Noted Dent - https://noteddent.com/What Smart CTOs Are Doing Differently With Offshore Teams in 2025Subscribe to the Global Talent SprintFull Scale – Build your dev team quickly and affordablyIf you’re trying to get your team out of the basement and into real product ownership, this episode is your playbook. Stop being a ticket factory. Build teams that think, create, and lead.Follow the show, rate it, and send this to someone who’s still trying to do “real Scrum.” They need it more than you do.

"Back in the 1900s when I was crossing the Great Plains in a covered wagon, programming in the back, the cover headline was: Software Development is Dead."I talked with Anthony Jackson, a CTO with 30 years across healthcare tech and enterprise software and author of the Architecture Protocol series, on Startup Hustle this week. Anthony is the creator of LeadershipOS, a framework for building teams that keep running when the leader isn't in the room.Here's what you'll get out of it:⚡ Why "software development is dead" has been a headline for 30+ years, and why the human judgment layer never goes away⚡ Why the real gap isn't more engineers, it's product people (and engineers who think like them)⚡ What actually changes when you go from individual contributor to manager, and why almost no company trains you for it⚡ Why every line of code still needs a name attached to it, especially in regulated industries⚡ How "lossy compression" quietly ruins decisions as they filter up and back down through management⏱️ Episode Breakdown00:32 Introduction and Anthony Jackson's background02:13 Is software development dead again?03:14 The impact of AI on coding and human judgment04:07 The importance of responsibility in software development05:59 The challenge of product management and customer feedback10:18 Transitioning from individual contributor to manager11:36 Building effective teams and leadership culture14:41 Anthony Jackson's leadership OS book and approach18:26 The significance of company and team culture21:07 The impact of good and bad managers21:38 Anthony Jackson's newsletter and coaching23:14 Connecting software developers with customers25:06 Empathy for users and understanding their experience28:18 Where to find Anthony Jackson's resources and booksLinks & ResourcesConnect with Anthony Jackson on LinkedInAnthony Jackson's Website - https://technicaleader.coachWhat Smart CTOs Are Doing Differently With Offshore Teams in 2025Subscribe to the Global Talent SprintFull Scale – Build your dev team quickly and affordablyIf you’re trying to get your team out of the basement and into real product ownership, this episode is your playbook. Stop being a ticket factory. Build teams that think, create, and lead.Follow the show, rate it, and send this to someone who’s still trying to do “real Scrum.” They need it more than you do.

I don't view engineers being out of a job. I view software engineers finally coming back to a real job."I talked with Adrian Gutierrez, co-founder of Ledgre, on Startup Hustle this week. Ledgre is an AI-native accounting platform built specifically for real estate investors, putting agentic AI to work doing the bookkeeping instead of handing you one more piece of software to manage.Here's what you'll get out of it:⚡ Why he was the startup's bookkeeper by hand for a year before writing a line of product, and why doing things manually first is the shortcut⚡ Why AI didn't kill software engineering, it exposed that distribution and the value prop were always the hard part⚡ Why domain knowledge beat his development skills every time when getting Ledgre off the ground⚡ What running a startup as a digital nomad across Europe, Spain, and Argentina taught him about which problems are actually worth solving⏱️ Episode Breakdown00:42 Introduction to Adrian Gutierrez and Ledger01:04 Adrian's background in FinTech and PropTech00:49 The origin story of Ledgre and market gaps02:54 How AI is transforming property management tools04:11 Adrian's experience owning rental properties05:18 The importance of domain knowledge in product development06:18 Manual bookkeeping and workflow complexity07:15 Scaling wisely and understanding problems before automating08:24 The importance of iteration and customer feedback08:52 Challenges of outreach and building relationships10:16 Cold outreach and response rates11:03 The impact of AI on distribution and problem-solving12:10 AI exposing weaknesses in traditional software development13:36 Reviving software engineering practices with AI14:32 Shift in marketing and distribution roles15:55 Using AI for marketing and SEO automation17:22 AI's role in software development and team management21:10 Living as a digital nomad and its impact on business22:45 Traveling and understanding global fintech landscapes24:33 Financial and payment infrastructure differences worldwide25:13 The value of solving real problems in different markets25:48 How to learn more about Ledger and AdrianIf you're building a product, leading engineers, or working in fintech and proptech, this one is worth your time.Listen to the Startup Hustle podcast anywhere you listen to podcasts!Links & ResourcesConnect with Adrian Gutierrez on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/adrian--gutierrez/Ledgre Website - https://www.ledgre.ai/

Most engineering teams are still optimizing for the wrong thing. They chase the speed of code when the real bottleneck is the speed of context. Matt Watson and Eban Bisong, founder and CEO of Senvi, get into what actually changes when AI moves from a coding tool to a teammate.Eban has spent his career as a founding engineer, and his approach is hands-on: don't tell skeptical engineers AI works, show them, every standup, until the pushback turns into excitement. At Park DNA he built "RTD2," an OpenClaw-powered droid wired read-only into their data sources, Slack, and Jira. It answered support questions before an engineer could, created its own bug tickets, and joined meetings through Fireflies so nothing got lost. The lesson underneath all of it: record everything, because the team that captures the most context ships the right thing fastest.Matt also shares his own three-week rabbit hole with Claude Cowork, $8K in tokens, a fully rebuilt Full Scale website, a thousand dead blog posts deleted, and 200 more rewritten. They go a few rounds on why it's a bad time to be a coder but a great time to be a builder, why "good enough" is a real standard and not a cop-out, and why ownership beats asking permission every time.If you build software or lead an engineering team, listen now. And if you want to try Eban's voice-first AI journal, visit senvi.ai.⏱️ Episode Breakdown00:42 From Founding Engineer to Solo Founder01:52 Using AI as an Engineering Leader03:24 Building RTD2: An AI Teammate for Support05:27 The Speed of Context, Not Code06:11 Why You Should Record Everything08:59 Winning Over AI-Skeptical Engineers11:50 The AI Spectrum Across 80 Clients13:35 A Bad Time to Be a Coder, a Great Time to Build14:03 Why "Good Enough" Is Good Enough14:52 Human-in-the-Loop and Reviewing AI's Work16:28 Going All-In on Senvi19:01 Validating the Product With a Beta Group21:01 Bootstrapping a Truly AI-Native CompanyLinks & ResourcesConnect with Eban Bisong on LinkedInSenvi.ai - senvi.aiWhat Smart CTOs Are Doing Differently With Offshore Teams in 2025Subscribe to the Global Talent SprintFull Scale – Build your dev team quickly and affordablyIf you’re trying to get your team out of the basement and into real product ownership, this episode is your playbook. Stop being a ticket factory. Build teams that think, create, and lead.Follow the show, rate it, and send this to someone who’s still trying to do “real Scrum.” They need it more than you do.

Most people are already asking AI about their health. Almost none of them believe the answers. Around 40% use it to make wellness choices, but fewer than 5% trust what it says. Matt Watson and Josh Anthony, CEO of Nlumn, dig into why.Josh has spent 25 years in food and nutrition, and his take is blunt: trust drops fast as the question gets serious, from a recipe to a diagnosis, and the fix isn't a smarter chatbot. It's pairing the data with a human people actually trust. They cover what's real right now too. The protein obsession. Beans having a moment. GLP-1s and why weight loss is now about saving muscle, not just dropping fat. Why people are building their own messy personalization stacks because no single company does it well.Matt also explains why he flat out ignores his doctors on cholesterol, and he and Josh go a few rounds on whether ultra-processed food is the problem or a missed opportunity.If you build or invest in health products, listen now. And if you want help with personalized nutrition, reach [email protected] or [email protected].⏱️ Episode Breakdown00:28 Introduction to Health Tech and AI03:36 Trust in AI for Health and Nutrition06:29 Personalization in Health and Nutrition09:26 Emerging Trends in Health Tech12:23 The Role of GLP-1 in Weight Management15:29 Challenges in the Food Industry18:37 Innovative Products in Health and NutritionLinks & ResourcesConnect with Joshua Anthony on LinkedInNlumn Website - https://www.nlumn.com/Email - mailto: [email protected] Smart CTOs Are Doing Differently With Offshore Teams in 2025Subscribe to the Global Talent SprintFull Scale – Build your dev team quickly and affordablyIf you’re trying to get your team out of the basement and into real product ownership, this episode is your playbook. Stop being a ticket factory. Build teams that think, create, and lead.

Matt Watson sits down with Beth Epperson, founder and CEO of Legacy Purposed, here in the Kansas City area. Beth came up through marketing and branding, including the brand launch for Hyvee Arena, before deciding to build something of her own.Her company is built around two products. Aligned Legacy measures how people think in real time and helps teams see how aware, connected, and aligned they actually are. HIKMET, or Wisdom Illuminated, keeps a company's knowledge governed and accurate so nothing walks out the door when an employee leaves.Beth and Matt get into the messy reality of being a founder. She self-funded the whole thing, learned to code her own prototype, and pitched for over a year through a pile of rejections. She also walked away from a paid pilot because the people on the other side were not aligned on ethics and accountability.Matt shares why he thinks Beth represents a new kind of founder. Sales first, build second, now that AI can help build the thing. They also dig into validating an idea, the pull you want to feel from customers, and why getting your first case studies is the hardest part.If you have ever tried to get a product to market on your own, this one is for you.⏱️ Episode Breakdown00:38 Introduction to Legacy Purposed and Beth Epperson03:37 Beth's Entrepreneurial Journey and Corporate Experiences06:37 The Birth of Legacy Purposed and Its Mission09:52 Understanding Emotions and Accountability in the Workplace12:35 The Development of Innovative Tools for Corporate Growth15:38 Challenges in Building and Marketing the Software18:28 The Importance of Case Studies and Market Validation21:37 Future Aspirations and Closing ThoughtsLinks & ResourcesConnect with Beth Epperson on LinkedInLegacy Purposed Website - https://legacypurposed.com/Email - mailto:[email protected] Smart CTOs Are Doing Differently With Offshore Teams in 2025Subscribe to the Global Talent SprintFull Scale – Build your dev team quickly and affordablyIf you’re trying to get your team out of the basement and into real product ownership, this episode is your playbook. Stop being a ticket factory. Build teams that think, create, and lead.Follow the show, rate it, and send this to someone who’s still trying to do “real Scrum.” They need it more than you do.