UNPACK3D Podcast

Marcel Santilli helped scale HashiCorp from $6M to $100M ARR, was CMO at Scale AI, and now runs GrowthX.ai- an AI-native growth company serving Ramp, Reddit, and Webflow that just raised $12M from Madrona. His contrarian take: AI is making marketing harder, not easier, because most companies can't clearly define who they're for or what they're building. We unpack his vision for turning...

CrewAI just crossed 2 billion agent executions — but founder Joe Moura thinks building agents isn't even the hard part. The real value gap? Getting them to production. Joe joins Vignesh and Arvind to break down why most enterprise AI projects fail at planning, not technology, how Oracle cold-approaching him at the SF Ferry Building validated the business, and what it takes to get Fortune 500 c...

For 40 years, the safe bet in enterprise software was Zendesk or Salesforce. Marty Kausas, founder of Pylon, thinks picking either for customer support today might now get you fired. Before Pylon worked, Marty spent 2 years cycling through 2 co-founder breakups and 5 dead ideas. Today, Pylon has 5x'd revenue two years running, raised a $31M Series B from a16z and Bain Capital, and migrated 150...

Jyoti Bansal was days away from taking AppDynamics public when Cisco made a $3.7 billion offer that changed everything. Now his second company, Harness, is valued at $5.5B — and he's built it on a contrarian thesis: AI is producing more code than ever, but code isn't the finished product. We cover the real story behind the Cisco acquisition, why his best sales reps from AppDynamics failed...

Is "vibe coding" enough for the enterprise? Scott Dietzen explains why professional engineers need an expert AI, not a toy. In this episode, we sit down with Scott Dietzen, Former CEO of Augment Code and Former CEO of Pure Storage. Scott breaks down why the current "vibe coding" trend—where non-engineers generate simple apps from scratch—fails to address the needs of large-scal...

In the final episode of the year, we sit down with legendary operator and "company helper" Gokul Rajaram. Gokul shares his unfiltered thesis on the current AI landscape, explaining why he is bearish on infrastructure and middleware companies while betting big on the application layer. We dive deep into his "Compound or Die" philosophy, why startups need to launch their second p...

In this episode, we sit down with Jason Wenk , Founder and CEO of Altruist . Jason shares the "lightbulb moment" he had watching Robinhood take off, realizing that Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs) were stuck using archaic, disjointed technology while consumers were getting sleek, digital experiences. We unpack how Altruist is taking on the industry giants (the "Duopoly") t...

In this episode of UNPAK3D, we sit down with Waseem Alshikh , co-founder and CTO of Writer , to unpack the reality of deploying Generative AI in the enterprise. While the consumer market chases the latest AGI hype, Waseem explains why the enterprise roadmap requires a different approach: predictability, domain specificity, and a shift from simple content generation to executing complex actions. We...

Stack Overflow has been the home for developers for over a decade — but the rise of AI is changing everything. In this episode, we talk to Prashanth Chandrasekhar , CEO of Stack Overflow, about how he’s reinventing the company from an ad-based community platform to an enterprise SaaS and data licensing business at the center of the AI ecosystem. We discuss: How Stack Overflow’s data powers models...

Parker Gilbert, founder & CEO of Numeric , joins the UNPAK3D podcast to walk through why finance teams are finally ready for AI-driven modeling, how Numeric approaches the hardest part (financial data and reliability), and the practical GTM playbook for selling to CFOs. Parker explains his path from strategy and scaling early-stage companies to starting Numeric, the “aha” problem Numeric solve...

From $50B mobile ads at Google to taking Coinbase public, Surojit Chatterjee has spotted — and seized — every major tech inflection point. Now, as CEO of Ema , he’s betting on “AI employees” to transform how enterprises work. In this episode: spotting trillion-dollar trends, building AI that works across industries, and why the future belongs to first-principles thinkers. (0:16) Surojit’s journey:...

In this episode, we sit down with Sanjay Beri , founder and CEO of Netskope , to explore how he built one of the most innovative cybersecurity companies of our time—now generating $500M+ in revenue and protecting over one-third of the Fortune 100 . We dive deep into: The vision behind Netskope and its role in a multi-hundred billion dollar market shift Why balancing strategic foresight with day-to...

In this episode we had a fantastic time talking to Atin Sanyal the CTO of Galileo. Galileo is a fast-growing GenAI Evaluation platform, which ensures AI apps perform reliably. In this episode we cover a lot of ground from Atin's read on the state of AI in the enterprise to how you deploy it reliably. Please listen, like and subscribe! 1:08 - Atin’s journey to Galileo 3:49 - What does Galileo do? 1...

A power-packed Unpak3d Podcast featuring Mike Conover, CEO of Brightwave, sharing battle-tested strategies for enterprise AI success. Mike breaks down exactly how to build, scale, and dominate in the AI-first era. Since recording this episode, Brightwave has  launched  Report Builder and Blueprints, two powerful new features that mark the debut of the first deep research platform purpose-built for...

We had a fantastic conversation with Jake Heller who founded Casetext and sold the company to Thomson Reuters for $650M. We cover the Casetext journey to AI, how he positioned himself to take advantage of the AI wave and his lessons on creating a buzz for M&A. Listen, like and subscribe! 1:00 - The Casetext journey 5:00 - Learning to leverage AI 21:00 - Moats in Vertical AI 29:00 - Thoughts on...

We had a great conversation with George on his career lessons, coaching his founders to be great, how AI is shifting business models and where he sees the opportunity emerging Please listen, like and subscribe! 1:42 - George's Journey 10:36 - Lessons and Resilience born from Failure 26:59 - Coaching Well-Rounded Founders 33:56 - Remember the Fundamentals when Building AI 40:22 - Changing business...

In this episode, we have a fantastic conversation with Ankit Jain, CEO of Infinitus. We cover a broad range of topics around selling, delivering value and building with a focus on how Infinitus has been successful in healthcare. We then talk about how AI going to be impact healthcare and how it will get adopted. Please listen and subscribe! 1:27 - Ankit's Journey to Infinitus 14:01 - Taking the en...

In this insightful episode, we sit down with Shyam Rao, the founder and CEO of Punchh, for a deep dive into the world of startups and entrepreneurship. Shyam shares his wealth of experience, from bootstrapping Punchh in its early days to scaling it into a successful venture. 13:33 Finding Your First Customers 17:27 Bootstrapping and Early Growth Reflecting on Punchh's journey 27:07 Product-Led...

We talk to Sumit Agarwal the founder of Ario and Shape Security (acq by F5 for $1B). We decrypt the the journey from the military to building a deep cybersecurity product and now a personal AI assistant. Listen in to uncover his 3D framework that guided the journey of Shape and now Ario. We wrap with how to navigate M&A, a theme which we believe is going to be a key topic in several board meet...

In this episode, we talk to Cedric Bru, the CEO of Taulia. Cedric joined the company after spending 7 years as an exec at Visa. In this episode, we dive deeply into how Cedric put his imprint on the business and navigated a crisis with one of their partners going bankrupt. 1:29 - Cedric’s journey into entrepreneurship and going from big company to startup 18:39 - Embracing the possibility of failu...

In this episode we have a great conversation with Varun Badhwar. Varun sold his first company, Redlock, to Palo Alto for over $200M. He recently embarked on his 2nd journey to build Endor Labs, where he raised a $70M Series A to secure the software supply chain. In this episode we cover: 1:04 - Varun’s foray into startups 8:57 - Hiring and building the best when $s are constrained 17:33 - Position...

1:12 - Story at Microsoft 9:54 - Dealing with ups and downs 14:30 - Bob’s new book “The Datapreneurs: The Promise of AI and the Creators Building Our Future” 17:55 - Culture through scaling 24:26 - What do you look for when hiring 35:20 - Strategies to compete in the modern landscape 50:42 - Threading the needle

In this episode we cover Mahe's journey to being a founder, how Phenom found it's niche and what makes them successful as a business 1:12 - Mahe’s journey 8:01 - AI’s role in business 20:09 - How do you find a wedge in today’s software saturated world? 29:38 - Building/hiring for a sustainable organization 45:32 - Scaling a business

Join us for this fantastic conversation with Amr Awadallah, the founder of Cloudera and Vectara. We covered a wide range of topics on company building and lessons learned during a long, successful career. 00:45- Amr’s journey to the Valley and breaking in as an immigrant 6:22- Embarking on the Entrepreneurial Journey and Building a Lasting Business 23:30- The art of blending simplicity with techni...

In this episode we cover: 00:56- Glen's journey to entrepreneurship + healthcare and the learnings along the way 15:19- Getting timing right in healthcare 21:04- Building great culture in tough times 26:40- Hiring the best leaders and putting together an exceptional board 30:11- Advice on scaling at different stages of the business 36:00- Accomplishing his life's mission and staying mental...