Madison Advisory AI Podcast

Some advisors get called when things are going well. Robert Stevens gets called when the deal has already broken. In this episode of the Madison Advisory AI Podcast, Amanda Verner Thompson sits down with Robert Stevens — a turnaround and restructuring specialist who has spent decades inside receiverships, workouts, and high-stakes situations where capital, regulation, ego, and reality collide. His...

Everyone wants to know what AI can automate. The more useful question is what happens when you actually try. In this episode, Amanda Verner Thompson sits down with Jeffrey Fidelman, a capital advisor who has guided hundreds of early and growth-stage companies through raising capital. Jeffrey did what most firms only talk about: he built AI into his investor outreach, scaled it roughly fourfold — a...

When capital is constrained and options are narrowing, what separates the companies that recover from those that don't? More often than not, it isn't the numbers — it's the willingness to make hard decisions before they become forced ones.   In this episode, Amanda Verner Thompson sits down with Rick Rosenbloom, founder and managing partner of Fuel Break Capital Partners, who has spent more than t...

Most digital health founders know how to build. Some know how to raise. Far fewer know how to translate early traction into a repeatable revenue engine — and that gap is where companies stall, burn capital, and make expensive hiring mistakes. In this episode, Amanda sits down with Kirk Barnes, founder of TransPharMed and a digital health commercialization strategist with a career spanning pharma,...

Episode Summary Most healthcare technology companies are built on venture timelines. John Serri built EyeQue on a different premise — that the technology would eventually matter enough to justify the long game. Founded in 2015, EyeQue set out to make accurate vision testing accessible through a smartphone. Nearly a decade later, the company holds 35 patents, operates across direct-to-consumer and...

Episode Summary As technology becomes embedded in daily life, the conversation around mental health has grown more complex. We hear constantly about the risks. But there is a less discussed perspective: technology may be one of our most powerful tools for improving mental health outcomes and preventing suicide.   Dr. Dan Reidenberg has spent decades at the forefront of suicide prevention. He serve...

Episode Summary Most founders don’t realize they’re leaving value on the table until a banker walks in the door and by then, much of the story is already written. In this episode of the Madison Advisory AI Podcast, Amanda sits down with Sterling Morris to discuss the decisions that shape enterprise value long before a transaction ever begins. Drawing from his background in investment banking and c...

Episode Summary In this episode of the Madison Advisory AI Podcast, Amanda is joined by Rob Lemos, SVP of Growth and Strategy at Mosaic Health, for a conversation on what actually drives growth, alignment, and decision-making inside complex healthcare organizations. Rob brings the perspective of an operator working at the intersection of strategy and execution. The discussion focuses on where grow...

Most leadership frameworks are built in boardrooms. Carlos Vasquez built his in solitary confinement. Carlos spent nearly 17 years in prison, including three years in solitary confinement, where he read over 150 books, processed childhood trauma, and built the foundation for what would later become a leadership consulting firm, a nonprofit, and five books. In this episode, Amanda and Carlos discus...

Episode Summary When a teenager is in crisis, families are often navigating one of the most confusing moments of their lives—trying to understand what is happening, what level of care is appropriate, what resources exist, and what they can actually access. Adolescent behavioral health is complex, underfunded, and often misunderstood. Brent Esplin is a licensed marriage and family therapist with 25...

Episode Summary Gregg Bauer has watched adoption curves play out for four decades — from pervasive computing before it was called IoT, through multiple market cycles, and now into AI. That experience gives him a grounded perspective that cuts through the noise around artificial intelligence. In this conversation, Gregg and Amanda explore why AI is being adopted at a pace that makes every prior tec...

Episode Summary In this episode of the Madison Advisory AI Podcast , Amanda Verner Thompson speaks with Brandt Brereton about the evolving lower middle market and why private equity is no longer the default path for founder-led companies. Drawing on decades of investment banking experience, Brandt explains how the internet and the explosion of private equity fundamentally changed the advisory land...

Episode Description In this episode of the Madison Advisory AI Podcast, Amanda Verner Thompson speaks with Lachlan Hughson, a former investment banker who has spent his career challenging how financial decisions are made. Despite sophisticated models and experienced advisors, most major financial decisions still fail to deliver expected outcomes. Lachlan argues this isn’t a talent problem — it’s a...

Summary In this episode of the Madison Advisory AI Podcast , host Amanda Verner Thompson speaks with Brad Cummins , founder of Fat Agent and Insurance Geek , about how firsthand frustration with fragmented insurance systems led him to build an end-to-end operating platform for agents. Brad began his career as an insurance agent and quickly encountered the operational friction many agents face: mul...

Episode Summary Trust in finance is not built through marketing — it is built through education, transparency, and long-term responsibility.   In this episode of the Madison Advisory AI Podcast , Amanda Verner Thompson speaks with financial professional and financial literacy advocate Stephen Davenport about the fragile state of trust in finance and why financial literacy remains one of the most i...

Show Notes In this episode of the Madison Advisory AI podcast, Amanda Verner Thompson speaks with Dat Le, Founder and Managing Partner of Motta Financial, about what responsible AI implementation looks like inside a real operating firm.   This conversation moves beyond automation hype and into execution.   Dat shares how his firm built an internal AI platform, “Alfred,” to remove administrative fr...

Episode Overview Rural healthcare doesn’t operate on scale — it operates on access. In this episode of the Madison Advisory AI Podcast , Amanda Verner Thompson sits down with Diane Moore, Chief Financial Officer of Mitchell County Hospital in West Texas, for a grounded conversation about leadership under constraint. Diane shares what it really means to operate a rural hospital in a town of 3,000 p...

In this episode of the Madison Advisory AI Podcast, Amanda Verner Thompson sits down with Scott Becker — founder and publisher of Becker’s Healthcare and partner at McGuireWoods — for a thoughtful discussion on leadership judgment in an era of accelerating complexity.   As margins tighten, AI advances, and healthcare systems grow in scale, leaders face increasing pressure to make high-stakes decis...

Summary Artificial intelligence is everywhere — in marketing platforms, accounting software, ad tools, dashboards, and productivity apps.   But the real question isn’t whether AI exists.   It’s whether it actually helps.   In this episode, Amanda Verner Thompson sits down with entrepreneur Adam Cortez to unpack what AI can realistically do for business owners — and where it’s being oversold.   Fro...

Episode Summary In this episode of the Madison Advisory AI Podcast, Amanda Verner Thompson sits down with Kristin Tugman , an industrial-organizational psychologist and disability workforce expert, to unpack why disability is not simply a benefit or a claim—but a core workforce system. Kristin explains how disability, healthcare costs, productivity, and psychological safety are deeply interconnect...

Episode Summary In this episode of the Madison Advisory AI Podcast , host Amanda Verner Thompson speaks with patient advocate and healthcare industry veteran Matt Toresco about what it truly means to be an empowered patient in today’s healthcare system.   Matt shares his personal journey through 18 years of chronic pain , misdiagnoses, and unnecessary procedures—experiences that led him to patient...

Episode Summary In this episode of the Madison Advisory AI Podcast , Seth Miller, President and CEO of Oregon Parks Forever, joins host Amanda Verner Thompson for a grounded conversation on leadership, fundraising, and the practical use of AI in resource-constrained environments. Seth shares his path through multiple organizational turnarounds and how that experience shaped his approach to expandi...

Summary In this episode of the Madison Advisory AI Podcast , Amanda Verner Thompson sits down with Teresa Eng , a seasoned technology and operations leader with more than three decades of experience across product development, high tech, banking, and insurance.   Teresa shares what it actually looks like to lead digital and AI-driven transformation inside a small organization — where resources are...

In this episode of the Madison Advisory AI Podcast , Amanda Verner Thompson sits down with Thomas Rush , a venture investor who has spent more than a decade working with 400+ startups through Consensus Mesh and as co-founder of Systemic Ventures . Thomas’s perspective is simple—and hard-earned: the product almost always changes , so early-stage investing is ultimately about people. In this convers...

Summary In this episode, Amanda Verner Thompson sits down with Andy Turner, founder of Turner Financial, to explore what trusted advisory really means in an AI-driven world.   Andy shares why he recently aligned part of his business with a larger platform—not for convenience, but to scale education, deepen mentorship, and stay true to a client-first philosophy. Drawing on decades of experience, he...