Code and Connor

This week on Code x Connor, Codestrap Founding Partners Benjamin Rogojan and Phil Sparks join Connor to discuss the latest wave of AI doomsday warnings, what recent incidents involving rogue AI agents say about the industry’s approach to safety, and whether companies should rethink the rush to adopt every new AI technology. Be sure to follow this channel for insights and perspective from industry...

This week on Code x Connor, we’re joined by Neil Sahota of loanDNA to discuss the global race to govern AI, how the technology is reshaping information and cybersecurity, and the real world implications of who controls AI. Neil is a globally recognized AI strategist and longtime advisor to the United Nations who has worked with governments, businesses, and international organizations to understand...

This week on Code x Connor, Connor and Dorian unpack the growing disconnect between individual AI productivity and actual business performance, why agentic systems could dramatically increase enterprise AI costs, and what it will take for companies to rethink how they’re adopting AI at a fundamental level. In this episode, we discuss: → The difference between AI automation, augmentation, and true...

In this episode of Code x Connor, we’re joined by Dr. Glen Lowry of Edufirm to discuss the impact of AI on higher education, why universities are struggling to adapt at the speed of technology, and what needs to change as traditional degrees, workforce development, and institutional procurement collide head first with the technology. As CEO of Edufirm, Glen works with institutions and technology p...

This week on Code x Connor, we're joined by Ahmad Osman and Michael Bradley, co-founders of Osmantic, to discuss why open source AI is rapidly closing the gap on frontier models and how owning your own AI infrastructure could become a major competitive advantage. Osmantic builds open source infrastructure that enables organizations to deploy, manage, and operate self-hosted AI systems, helping ent...

Most AI agents today run on the same pattern: give the model a goal, dump in a giant system prompt, let it loop through tool calls until it decides it's done. It's flexible. It's also burning enterprise budgets for no good reason. In this episode, we break down why the generalized agent loop, the default architecture behind most agentic AI, is quietly a tax on an enterprise's margin. Anthropic's o...

This week on Code x Connor, we’re joined by Codestrap Founding Partners Benjamin Rogojan and Anand Pant to break down the latest developments shaping the AI industry—from OpenAI's proposed government equity stake and the future of open-source models to Microsoft's massive push into forward deployed engineering and the growing reality check around enterprise AI adoption. In this episode, we discuss...

This week on Code x Connor, we’re joined by Sam Piecz of Corgi to discuss how AI is reshaping the insurance industry, the emergence of new AI-driven risk categories, and the challenges of underwriting AI-powered businesses. Sam is Head of AI at Corgi, where he’s focused on building AI-native insurance products to modernize one of the world’s largest industries. As Corgi’s founding software enginee...

This week on Code x Connor, we’re joined by Codestrap’s own Anand Pant and Przemysław Nowak to discuss the latest news around AI, from the increasingly unsustainable cost of token burn to Anthropic and OpenAI’s looming IPOs, and the growing disconnect between AI hype and business outcomes. Anand is a Founding Partner and Builder at Codestrap, where he helps customers build operating systems they c...

This week on Code x Connor, we’re joined by Andrew Boyagi of Atlassian to discuss why AI is accelerating software development without necessarily accelerating business outcomes, the organizational bottlenecks holding enterprises back, and what it actually takes to build an AI-ready company. Andrew is Atlassian’s Customer CTO and Head of DevOps Evangelism, where he helps some of the world’s largest...

This week on Code x Connor, we’re joined by Lee McCabe of Claymore Partners to discuss the convergence of AI and private equity, why firms are struggling to create operational value, and the growing disconnect between AI hype and real-world business fundamentals. Lee is a partner at Claymore Partners, a digital-first growth advisory firm helping private equity and their portfolio companies drive o...

This week on Code x Connor, we’re joined by Umesh Unnikrishnan of Snowflake to discuss the evolution from vibe coding to agentic engineering, how AI is reshaping developer workflows, and why trusted data platforms are becoming the control plane for the agentic enterprise. Umesh is the Head of Developer Experiences at Snowflake, where he's focused on building and scaling Cortex Code, Snowflake’s da...

Codestrap welcomes ForgeSight to the channel to discuss how AI-powered operational platforms are reshaping traditional SaaS and see a demo of CustomerForge, a jointly developed CRM solution built atop Palantir Foundry. Featuring Codestrap Founding Partner & Business Platform Lead Bryce Leszczynski, ForgeSight Co-Founder & CEO Chris Atack, and ForgeSight Forward Deployed Engineers Brett Adams and A...

This week on Code x Connor, we’re joined by Brian Fornelli of Conagra Brands to discuss operationalizing AI in large enterprises, why companies are overcomplicating adoption, and where generative AI actually delivers value. Brian is a Senior Director of Data Solutions and Engineering at Conagra Brands, where he focuses on building production-grade machine learning systems and scalable software sol...

This week on Code x Connor, we’re joined by Maciej Kraus, partner at Movens Capital and Stanford guest lecturer, to discuss current AI pricing models, their limitations, and what comes next. Maciej is a PhD, VC partner, and pricing expert with 20+ years in strategy, sales, and monetization. He advises founders on value capture, guest lectures at Stanford Graduate School of Business, and co-authore...

This week on Code x Connor, we’re joined by Jarek Sobanski of Swiss Re to discuss managing complexity at scale, how Foundry enables a data-connected enterprise, and where AI is actually driving business impact. Jarek leads Data Platforms Architecture at Swiss Re—a Global Fortune 500 company and the world’s largest reinsurer—guiding a team that designs and scales enterprise data and AI ecosystems....

This week on Code x Connor, we’re joined by Tarek Nseir and Dom Selvon of Valiance to discuss the latest in AI news, from the UK’s attempt to oust Palantir from the NHS to Claude Code’s source code leak. Tarek is a serial entrepreneur who built one of Europe's leading digital transformation consultancies over 25 years, delivering landmark programmes for JK Rowling, the BBC, and LV Insurance. Dom i...

Codestrap’s Dorian Smiley, Benjamin Rogojan, and Przemyslaw Nowak discuss the key issues and considerations fueling the debate between tradcoding and tokenmaxxing. Be sure to follow us to get our latest updates and learn about our technology and approach. Schedule a meeting with us through www.codestrap.com to see what we can do for your business. Featuring: Dorian Smiley, Founder & CTO: https://w...

CodeStrap's "Code and Connor" Episode 26 features our friend Jeff Hollan, Former Head of Cortex AI Agents and Snowflake Intelligence. Jeff led the product strategy for Snowflake Intelligence, Cortex Agents, Cortex Analyst, and Cortex Search. These core components of Snowflake Cortex AI empower developers, engineers, and data scientists to build powerful AI apps and agents alongside the world’s dat...

CodeStrap's "Code and Connor" Episode 25 features our friend Jack Smith from ElevenLabs. Jack leads global channel partnerships and strategic alliances at ElevenLabs. Previously, he was the Employee Experience and Consumer Bank Operations tech strategy lead at JPMorgan Chase, overseeing emerging technology initiatives and leading engagement with the tech ecosystem. This episode focuses on: → Solvi...

This week on Code x Connor, Unit8 co-founder & CTO Michal Rachtan joins us to debrief the 2026 World Economic Forum in Davos and discuss global perspectives around AI. As CTO at Unit8, a Swiss-based data + AI services company, Michal leads a team of over 160 deploying production-grade data platforms and agentic solutions for major global enterprises in the life sciences, manufacturing, and financi...

CodeStrap's "Code and Connor" Episode 23 features our friend Francisco Ferreira, Founder and CEO of Datalinks, a company that is laser-focused on bringing human understanding to the core of the data and AI value chains. Prior to founding Datalinks, Francisco spent 9 years at Palantir. At Palantir, he architected and created the product and infrastructure group for Skywise, the world’s biggest avia...

CodeStrap's "Code and Connor" Episode 22 features our friend Robert Fidler, General Manager of Valinor Streamline. Prior to joining Valinor, Rob spent five years as a Forward Deployed Engineer at Palantir Technologies, working on projects with a variety of civilian agencies such as the FDA. He also spent 2 years as a Software Engineer at Chapter building their core technology layer. Our 22nd episo...

CodeStrap's "Code and Connor" Episode 21 features friend Bill Salak, CTO and CTO of Brainly. At Brainly, he’s helped scale one of the world’s largest AI-powered learning platforms, serving 15 million learners daily. Bill has over two decades of leadership driving transformative technology at Age of Learning, AOL, HBO, ETS, Hasbro, NBC-Universal, and even the U.S. Army.  Our 21st episode focuses on...

CodeStrap's "Code and Connor" Episode 20 features our friend Chad Wahlquist. Chad is a Forward Deployed Architect at Palantir and serves customers and the developer audience with business-focused solutions and product exposure that the developer and customer community yearn for.  On this episode we discuss Chad’s journey from Tyson to Palantir, solving business problems during crises, the AIP laun...