184 - If Partnerships Drive Most Revenue, Why Do We Wing It? with Jon Mead

186 - What If Recognition Worked Like A Viral Product - with Ali Linz

Remote work didn’t erase birthdays, farewells, sympathy moments, and thank-yous it just removed the simple office ritual that made them easy. We sit down with Allie Lenz, co-founder of GroupTogether, to unpack the very real “recognition gap” that shows up when teams go hybrid: people still want to show appreciation, but the old card-and-envelope flow doesn’t work, and asking coworkers to chip in can feel awkward. We walk through how GroupTogether turns that messy process into a self-serve digital group card and group gifting platform that feels surprisingly personal. You pick a card design, share a link in Slack or email, teammates add messages, photos, and GIFs, and optional contributions stay private. The recipient gets a polished reveal experience and a flexible gift card option, which helps employee recognition feel like a keepsake rather than another notification. Then we zoom in on product-led growth: why the product’s inherent virality matters more than heavy integrations, how UX drives the loop (and where friction kills it), and how Allie’s team uses customer conversations, behavioural analytics, and the right metrics instead of vanity stats. We also talk about AI in a human-centred way: using AI to help people find the right words without automating away intention, plus why trust, compliance, and payment safety become key differentiators as volume scales. If you care about PLG, employee engagement, team culture, and building software that delivers real emotion, this one will spark ideas. Subscribe, share the episode with a teammate, and leave a review with your favourite takeaway.

185 - Stop Drowning In Applicants with Matthew Stewart

Your hiring inbox shouldn’t feel like spam, but that’s where recruiting is heading as AI makes it effortless to generate resumes and apply at scale. We sit down with Matthew Stewart, a software engineer turned founder of Talent Sprout, to unpack what’s breaking in modern recruiting and why the biggest pain shows up right at the start: screening. When you can’t tell who’s real and you’re buried under PDFs, the first phone screen becomes a bottleneck that quietly taxes your entire hiring pipeline.  Matthew explains how Talent Sprout uses conversational AI to run that initial screen, moving beyond the old one-way video interview format. We talk through how the AI can ask questions in a more natural flow, evaluate responses in real time, and produce a structured scorecard so recruiters can quickly spot strength instead of watching endless recordings. We also get practical about implementation: pulling context from your company site, generating interview questions from a job description, and sharing smart links with candidates.  We dig into the trust and quality side too, including the guardrails that keep candidate experience consistent and scoring reliable across high volume hiring. Then we zoom out to product strategy: why UI/UX still matters in HR tech, how 50+ ATS integrations create real workflow value, and how to avoid building something that feels like a thin “LLM wrapper.” Matthew closes with what’s next, including AI candidate sourcing and a longer-term path toward a more comprehensive recruiting platform.

184 - If Partnerships Drive Most Revenue, Why Do We Wing It? with Jon Mead

We talk with John Mead, founder and CEO of Partnerbridge.io, about why partnerships drive huge SaaS revenue while most programs still fail from a lack of strategy. We break down partner types, how data and UX shape partner discovery, and how a PLG approach can still include human guidance for better decisions.  • the partnership revenue paradox and why failure rates stay high  • what partnerships mean in practice: integrations, marketplaces, affiliates, services firms  • how to narrow the problem by focusing on technology partners vs solutions partners  • how Partner Bridge matches partners using strategic fit levers and filters  • who typically owns partnerships across different company stages  • what the competitive landscape looks like and why iteration matters  • why UX and approachable data presentation can be a real differentiator  • onboarding flow, free tier goals, data scraping, and user corrections  • combining product-led growth signals with user groups to guide the roadmap

183 - Verbal identity as the antidote to generic AI content with Ken Marshall

We talk with Ken "Magma" Marshall, co-founder of Meet Sona, about why most leaders struggle to publish consistently and why “sounding human” is now a competitive advantage. We break down an interview-first workflow that turns short voice conversations into platform-ready content without losing your taste, judgment, or stories.  • Ken’s path from sales to coding to SEO and agency life, then building Meet Sona  • The three constraints behind inconsistent posting: time, confidence, and differentiation  • Why conversation pulls out more distinct ideas than writing from a blank page  • Verbal identity as the antidote to generic AI content and “AI blindness”  • How guided voice interviews become LinkedIn posts, blogs, newsletters, and X posts fast  • Pricing trade-offs versus done-for-you content teams and the CAC payback reality  • What meaningful analytics should reveal beyond impressions and comment counts  • The competitive landscape across chat tools, writing tools, voice notes, and interview-based products  Check It Out At Meetsona, S-O-N-A, Meetsona.Ai

182 - What If Onboarding Let Users Stay In Control? with Karel Papik

We talk with Karel Papik, co-founder of Product Fruits, about why most products lose users in the first minutes and how better onboarding fixes trial drop-off. We dig into AI-powered user journeys that feel like a seamless, human layer inside your app while still giving product teams clearer feedback and faster insights. • why consumer-style impatience now defines B2B SaaS onboarding and activation • how Product Fruits uses discovery conversations to tailor the in-app experience • using an AI copilot for contextual help, tours, arrows and memory • turning chat and survey feedback into “outcomes” that highlight friction points • why bolting on AI often fails and when rebuilding around AI works • keeping AI answers trustworthy with internal checks and tuning • integrating with analytics tools instead of rebuilding full product analytics • when a complex product with many segments benefits most Go to productfruits.com to check it all out.