Innovators Inside

Garnet Heraman, co-founder and GP at Aperture Venture Capital, joins Ian Bergman to explain how investors can separate real technology shifts from hype. They explore vertical AI, enterprise adoption, quantum infrastructure, and why historical patterns still matter in fast-moving markets. Garnet shares how his journey from startup operator to venture investor shaped the way he evaluates emerging te...

AI is changing how businesses make decisions, manage teams, and compete. In this episode of Innovators Inside Podcast, Ian Bergman and Geoff McQueen, Founder and CEO of WorkSights AI, explore how AI can move beyond individual productivity and workflow automation to become a new layer of intelligence for the entire organization. Geoff shares why the next big opportunity in AI is helping leaders und...

Matt Higgins, CEO and co-founder of RSE Ventures, joins Innovators Inside to unpack what it really takes to build boldly when there is no fallback plan. From Shark Tank and Harvard Business School to defense tech, indoor air sanitation, venture capital, and West Palm Beach’s rise as an innovation hub, Matt shares practical lessons for founders, operators, and leaders making high-stakes decisions....

How do great companies lose their mission, and how can founders stop it before it starts? In this episode, Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup and Incorruptible, explains how mission drift, shareholder pressure, false metrics, and weak governance push organizations away from real value creation. Eric breaks down why so many companies optimize for financial proxies instead of human flourishing, w...

Category creation can help founders and innovation leaders stop competing in crowded markets and start defining new ones. In this episode of Inside Podcast, Ian Bergman and Layne Fawns talk with Kevin Maney , co-founder of Category Design Advisors , and author of The Category Creation Formula , about how companies create and lead new market categories. Kevin breaks down his framework: context + mi...

How do leaders create real change when the problem has no clear answer? In this episode, Ian Bergman and Layne Fawns sit down with John Michael Schert, founder of JMS & Company, to explore adaptive leadership, creativity, organizational change, and why the hardest part of innovation is often letting go of what used to work. John Michael brings a rare perspective shaped by professional ballet,...

In this episode, neuroscientist, entrepreneur, and author Vivienne Ming explains why the biggest opportunity in AI is not automation, but helping people think better, ask better questions, and solve harder problems. Vivienne breaks down the difference between well-posed and ill-posed problems, why most companies are using AI the wrong way, and how leaders can build cultures that reward exploration...

In this episode, Wendy Gonzalez, CEO of Sama, breaks down why high-quality data, human-in-the-loop systems, and clear evaluation standards are essential for building AI that actually works at scale. Wendy shares how enterprises train, validate, and improve AI models in the real world, from autonomous vehicles to e-commerce recommendations and generative AI. She also explains why dirty data, edge c...

In this episode, Ian Bergman sits down with Dhruv C. Patel, co-founder of Syncurrent, to explore how AI is helping local governments, Tribal Nations, and public agencies find and access funding faster, turning a process that once took months into something that can happen in minutes. Together, they unpack why so many communities are shut out of critical funding opportunities, how outdated systems...

What if innovation is not about moving faster, but moving with purpose? In this episode of Innovators Inside, Ian Bergman sits down with Dr. Hisham Alasad, head of innovation enablement at Qatar Airways, to unpack a human-first view of innovation shaped by fintech, academia, and a bold move to Qatar. They break down what open banking really changes, why banks fight it, and how open finance could u...

What does it really take to lead through constant disruption? Jim Stallings, Founder and CEO of PS27 Ventures, shares lessons from a career spanning the U.S. Marine Corps, senior leadership roles at IBM, and now early-stage investing. Jim breaks down how IBM turned Linux from free software into a multibillion-dollar business, why internal resistance is often the biggest blocker to innovation, and...

Building an app is easy. Building an app people keep using is the hard part. In this episode, we sit down with Ghazenfer Mansoor, Founder and CEO of Technolog y Rivers and author of Beyond the Download . He breaks down why so many software and AI projects fail, how to design an MVP that is truly usable, and the “blueprint” process that helps teams plan the right foundation before writing code. We...

Startups and corporates need each other. But most partnerships fall apart. In this episode, Ian Bergman talks with Noga Tal about what actually makes these relationships work. They break down why thinking big early is not hype, it is planning. How founders can back up a bold vision with data and steps. Why corporate bureaucracy kills momentum. How to align on the real why, set shared metrics, and...

In this episode, Marcelo Calbucci breaks down the innovation habits that shaped his career at Microsoft, Amazon, and across six startups. He explains why small, fast iterations beat big plans, how narrative driven strategy unlocks clarity, and why today’s founders should embrace niche, hyper specialized solutions. Marcelo also shares how Amazon’s PR FAQ framework can help any innovator inside a st...

You can’t avoid pain, but you can choose which pain is worth it. In this episode of Innovators Inside, Hong Kong–raised entrepreneur and two-time TEDx speaker Yunsu Tang shares her journey from a stable corporate career in Hong Kong and Shanghai to rebuilding in London’s startup ecosystem. She unpacks imposter syndrome, why anxiety often comes from a lack of data points, and what she learned from...

You hit the goals, earn the title, and build the career… yet something still feels off. In this episode of Innovators Inside, Ian Bergman sits down with Dr. Sharon Spano, PhD, to dig into why high achievers so often reach success and then suddenly feel empty, stuck, or disconnected. Sharon breaks down the stages of adult development, how unresolved trauma shows up in leadership, and why self-aware...

Season 7 of Innovators Inside kicks off with Sherwood “Woody” Neiss — entrepreneur, venture capitalist, architect of the JOBS Act, and author of Investomers . Woody walks through how investment crowdfunding went from an eight-bullet framework to a 485-page regulation that opened startup investing to everyday people. He and Ian dig into the rise of the “customer-investor,” why doctors, scientists,...

In this episode of the AlchemistX Innovators Inside Podcast, Ian Bergman sits down with Tiya Gordon , co-founder & CEO of It’s Electric , to unpack a deceptively simple approach to urban EV charging: power curbside chargers from the buildings they sit beside. Tiya shares how “shallow tech” beats heavy infrastructure, why cities and property owners say yes, and how this model accelerates electr...

Ian Bergman sits down with entrepreneur and author Alistair Croll , Founder of Fwd50 a to unpack ideas from his new book Just Evil Enough : The Subversive Marketing Handbook. They explore why product-market fit is no longer enough, how product-market-medium fit wins today, and why legitimacy—not features—decides who gets chosen in crowded markets. Croll shares a builder-friendly approach to go-to-...

In this episode of the AlchemistX Innovators Inside Podcast, Ian Bergman sits down with Maura O’Neill to explore her bold mission with The Decade Project : reshaping U.S. entrepreneurship so that it reflects the full racial, ethnic, and gender makeup of the nation. Maura unpacks the economic and social potential of inclusive entrepreneurship — from unlocking trillions in GDP growth to empowering m...

In this episode of the AlchemistX Innovators Inside Podcast, Ian Bergman sits down with Ron Green , Co-Founder and CTO of KUNGFU.AI , to explore the evolution of artificial intelligence and what it means for business leaders today. Ron shares his 30-year journey in AI, from the early days of neural networks in the 90s to today’s frontier of reasoning models and reinforcement learning. He explains...

Ian Bergman sits down with Hassan Jaferi , Sr. Director at Myant Ventures and veteran of IP, tech transfer, and startup acceleration, to unpack the realities of turning academic breakthroughs into thriving businesses. From his early career as a patent examiner to building and mentoring deep tech ventures through Toronto Innovation Acceleration Partners, Hassan shares the pivotal lessons he’s learn...

In this episode of the AlchemistX Innovators Inside Podcast, Ian Bergman welcomes back Robyn Bolton, author of Unlocking Innovation: A Leader’s Guide to Turning Bold Ideas into Tangible Results. Robyn explains why innovation consistently stalls in large organizations—and why the issue isn’t a shortage of ideas but a leadership challenge. Together, Ian and Robyn break down the ABCs of innovation—Ar...

In this episode of the AlchemistX Innovators Inside Podcast, Ian Bergman sits down with John Rossman , Keynote Speaker & Advisor—former Amazon leader and author of Big Bet Leadership —to break down the operating system senior executives need to win transformational bets. From T‑Mobile’s Un‑carrier playbook to Amazon’s working‑backwards method, John explains why most corporate transformations s...

In this episode of the AlchemistX Innovators Inside Podcast, Ian Bergman sits down with Roey Eliyahu and Michael Nicosia, co-founders of Salt Security—the company that pioneered the API security category. Together, they break down the early decisions that helped them go from idea to industry-defining solution. Roey shares how he went from coding at nine in Israel’s cybersecurity units to buying a...