#StartupsUnedited

AI is transforming marketing faster than most teams can adapt. In this episode of #StartupsUnedited, I sit down with Brad Smith, Co-Founder of uSERP and Founder of Codeless Interactive, to discuss how marketers can move beyond AI hype and build practical systems that drive results. Topics covered include: • GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) and AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) • The future of A...

AI search is changing how buyers discover brands. In this episode of #StartupsUnedited , I sit down with Devin Pickell, Founder of Do I Need SEO, to discuss why YouTube has become one of the most important channels for SEO, GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), AEO (Answer Engine Optimization), and AI visibility. As platforms like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews increa...

AI search is changing how buyers discover brands. In this episode of #StartupsUnedited, I sit down with Jake Sotir, SEO & Organic Growth Manager at Practice Better, to break down how AEO (Answer Engine Optimization), GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), AI visibility, and LLM-powered search are reshaping modern marketing. If you are a founder, CMO, growth marketer, SEO leader, or agency tryin...

AI is changing more than software. It is changing the entire economics of SaaS.In this episode of #StartupsUnedited, I sit down with pricing and go-to-market expert Roee Hartuv, Senior Pricing Advisor & Head of GTM Expertise at Willingness to Pay, to discuss why traditional seat-based SaaS pricing is breaking, how AI is destroying margins, and what founders need to understand before they accid...

What does it really take to build a company that wins - and gets acquired by a giant like Salesforce? In this episode of #StartupsUnedited, I sit down with John Andrews (Co-Founder & CEO of Cimulate, now part of Salesforce.com) to break down the real playbook behind building, scaling, and exiting a category-defining AI company. We go deep on:Why your co-founder choice is everything (and how to...

What does startup success really look like? In this episode of #StartupsUnedited , I sit down with serial entrepreneur Eric Litman, a serial founder whose companies have consistently led to major outcomes, to unpack the real, unfiltered truth behind building companies, managing pressure, and staying grounded through it all. This isn’t a highlight reel. This is what founders actually go through.🔥...

In this episode of #StartupsUnedited , I sit down with Vignesh Ravikumar, Partner at Sierra Ventures, to break down what actually matters in building and scaling startups in the AI era. They go deep on:-Why AI gets you 80% of the way, but not the last mile-The rise of “systems of context” as the real competitive moat-How founders should think about moats in 2026 and beyond-What separates elite sta...

In this episode of #StartupsUnedited , I sit down with serial entrepreneur Jonathan Friedman to break down how AI is fundamentally changing how startups are built, funded, and scaled. Jonathan shares his journey from building companies like DemoStack to rethinking the entire startup playbook - and why the traditional VC-backed model may no longer be the default path for ambitious founders. We dive...

Is sales development dead in the age of AI? Not even close. In this episode of #StartupsUnedited, I sit down with John Moore, Head of Business Development at Cimulate (now part of Salesforce), to break down what actually works in modern outbound sales. While most teams are chasing AI tools, John is quietly building one of the highest-performing SDR/BDR teams in today’s market - proving that fundam...

In this episode of #StartupsUnedited, I sit down with Daniel Barber, Co-Founder & CEO of DataGrail, for a candid conversation on AI agents, data privacy, shadow AI, startup leadership, and what it really takes to build a SaaS company in a rapidly changing market. Daniel breaks down how AI is reshaping hiring, privacy operations, and the future of work, why shadow AI is becoming one of the bigg...

What do founders, CROs, and go-to-market leaders keep getting wrong about partnerships? In this episode, I sit down with Sean Kester to break down why partnerships are no longer a side channel in B2B SaaS - they are becoming a real competitive moat, especially in an AI-driven market where product advantages are getting compressed fast. Sean shares hard-earned lessons from building in SaaS, scaling...

Is traditional SaaS dead… or just in a survival era ? In this episode of #StartupsUnedited , I sit down with Craig Rosenberg (Chief Platform Officer, Scale Venture Partners) - aka the “funnelholic” and co-host of The Transaction - to break down what’s actually happening in B2B software right now. Craig’s take: it’s not just “AI.” It’s AI + the weirdest buying environment in years + changing buyer...

In this episode of Startups Unedited, I sit down with Brian Wong, General Partner at ASCII Ventures, to break down how AI is fundamentally reshaping venture capital, startup defensibility, and what investors actually look for in founders today. Brian has lived both sides of the table - scaling and exiting venture-backed startups, then raising a fund focused on what he calls “boring tech”: overlook...

In this episode of #StartupsUnedited , I sit down with Anthony Kennada, Co-Founder & CEO of Goldenhour, for a wide-ranging, deeply human conversation about AI, identity, work, and what actually matters next. This isn’t another surface-level AI or go-to-market playbook. It’s a real discussion about what happens when:80–90% of knowledge work gets automatedMarketing ops, testing, and optimization...

Too many founders don’t fail because the product is “bad.” They fail because they mistake polite interest for real demand. In this episode of #StartupsUnedited , I sit down with Ellen Rubin, Operating Partner at Glasswing Ventures - multi-time founder (CloudSwitch → Verizon, ClearSky Data → AWS) and former marketing Netezza leader - to break down the hardest transition in startups:➡️ “Nice-to-have...

In this episode of Startups Unedited, I sit down with my longtime friend Max Altschuler - serial entrepreneur turned General Partner at GTMfund - to break down one of the biggest questions founders are facing right now:If AI has commoditized product… what actually matters anymore? We cover:The real transition from operator → VC (spoiler: it’s not easier)Why GTM is one of the last true defensible m...

Fundraising in January 2026 feels upside down - and Doug Landis (sales productivity + GTM legend, former Emergence Capital investor) breaks down why founders are feeling whiplash right now. In this episode of #StartupsUnedited, we get into:Why the “AI revolution” narrative is overhyped - and what’s actually newThe stat that surprised me: “85% of the tech stack is still SaaS”Why investors aren’t “m...

In this episode of #StartupsUnedited, I sit down with Rahul Jain (CEO & Co-founder at Noble) to break down the real pivot story:✅ sales slowing down✅ privacy + legal friction piling up✅ “death by a million cuts”✅ a few months of runway left…and then making the call to move into AI Search—helping brands show up in LLMs by automating brand mentions in the sources AI cites. We get into:When y...

AI made it way easier to build a product… and somehow made startups way harder to win. In this episode of #StartupsUnedited, I sit down with Ravi Belani (Founder & CEO of Alchemist Accelerator, Stanford entrepreneurship instructor, former DFJ) to break down what AI is doing to:Startup valuations (and why some “identical” companies get funded while others get $0)The new bar for traction: why $3...

In this episode of #StartupsUnedited, Jorge Soto sits down with Aaron Melamed (Founder & CEO of Itero) - a former “carry-a-bag” sales leader turned founder who’s building a new kind of AI-native company. Aaron breaks down the exact moment he realized ChatGPT + autonomous agents could replace traditional sales training and repetitive business ops, and how he’s using agents to scale everything f...

Most teams don’t fail at ABM because they lack tools - they fail because they skip the strategy. In this episode of #StartupsUnedited, Jorge Soto sits down with Kristina Jaramillo, President of Personal ABM, for a deep, practical conversation on what real account-based go-to-market looks like when it’s built around revenue, focus, and account experience — not just intent data and campaigns. We unp...

On this episode of #StartupsUnedited , I sit down with Jonathan Kazarian , CEO & Founder of Accelevents , for one of the most tactical deep dives I’ve ever recorded on B2B brand-building, event marketing, and founder-led growth. Jonathan shares the real origin story behind Accelevents — from hedge fund analyst in Boston to building event tech out of necessity for a family fundraiser… and then...

I had an incredible conversation with Evi about her wild journey from leading B2B SaaS marketing to founding Apex Cool Labs, a company at the cutting edge of recovery technology. And it all started with one simple goal: doing more pull-ups. Evi discovered a technique called palm cooling on a podcast, went down the rabbit hole, met her co-founder over a tweet (because of course she did), and the re...

In this episode our Host Justin Dorfman interview startup founders Sneh Parmar and Nafis Azad, Co-Founders of Lucky. Lucky is a startup that enables retailers and eCommerce brands to work together to get products to consumers quicker. Here are some of the topics discussed in this episode: 💡 How did you come upon the problem you’re solving with Lucky, how did you validate it, and when did you real...

In this episode our Hosts Jorge Soto and Justin Dorfman interview startup sales guru and entrepreneur Scott Sambucci, Founder, CEO, and Sales Coach at SalesQualia. Scott is a veteran in the Silicon Valley startup sales world. He's helped countless startup founders figure out sales and scale their businesses. Here are some of the topics discussed in this episode: 💡 Why is it so important for f...