People Over Clients Over Projects (Why Most Agencies Rank It Wrong) ft. Dominic Tancredi

People Over Clients Over Projects (Why Most Agencies Rank It Wrong) ft. Dominic Tancredi

Most digital agencies do not survive past year five. Dominic Tancredi has been running Dom & Tom for 17 years, navigating every technology wave from the birth of mobile to the current AI agent explosion. Surviving that long requires more than just technical capability. It requires making painful leadership decisions when the pressure is highest. Mark Wormgoor pressure-tests Dominic's contrarian approach to technology and team building. They discuss the realities of the current tech market, breaking down how enterprise, mid-market, and startup boardrooms are reacting to the AI shift. Dominic also shares a vulnerable story about a failure in judgment when a major client demanded a brutal deadline, and the hard lesson he learned about choosing his people over a project. Dominic brings nearly two decades of experience helping founders and CTOs build digital products that matter. If you are looking for clarity on how to navigate the increasing cognitive load of tech leadership, this conversation delivers. Subscribe to The CTO Compass on Apple Podcasts or Spotify so you never miss an episode. Key Takeaways • Prioritizing your engineering team over demanding clients is essential, even if it means losing a major account. • Refusing to commit to a single technology stack gives you the flexibility to solve diverse business problems effectively. • Large organizations are cutting headcount and relying on AI agents to fill the gaps, which creates massive opportunities for fast-moving intrapreneurs. • Medium-sized businesses face the highest market pressure right now because they are caught between economic volatility and the urgent need to adopt new workflows. • AI has accelerated product execution so significantly that a founder's primary challenge is now marketing and finding real users. • The cognitive load on tech leaders is shifting from writing code to reviewing output as autonomous agents begin generating daily pull requests. ABOUT DOMINIC Dominic Tancredi is the Co-Founder and CEO/CTO of Dom & Tom, a digital product agency with over 17 years of experience designing and building scalable web, mobile, and emerging technology platforms. He specializes in bridging product strategy, user experience, and engineering to help organizations launch and evolve high-impact digital products. With a background in both computer science and theater, Dominic brings a unique perspective to storytelling in product design - combining technical rigor with human-centered thinking. He has led initiatives for startups, enterprise organizations, and government entities, with a focus on innovation, AI integration, and user-centric solutions. At Dom & Tom, his team follows a structured 5D methodology - Define, Discover, Design, Develop, Deploy - to ensure products are strategically aligned, technically sound, and built for long-term success. CHAPTERS 00:00 Do Good, Be Good! 05:55 Widening Your Curiosity 07:56 Keeping Up with Technology 10:07 The Contrarian's Mindset 13:51 Ad 14:22 Surviving 17 Years! 18:24 Biggest Mistakes and Small Ws 24:42 Long Term Professional Relationships 27:48 Ad 28:00 Tech Market Cross Section! 37:12 Agents, Assistants, and Reviewers 44:32 Working With Your Team WHERE TO FIND DOMINIC • Website: https://domandtom.com/ • LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/domtancredi

The Model Doesn't Matter: What Actually Creates 10x AI Productivity ft. Clive Moore

Technology decisions feel heavy when AI and data privacy collide. In this episode of The CTO Compass, I sit down with Clive Moore, a UI/UX designer with 25 years of experience who became the founder of GPT Studio and Workilo. After experiencing a severe ransomware attack on his agency's self-hosted GitLab instance, Clive shifted his focus to building safer infrastructure for agencies and businesses. We discuss why the underlying AI model does not actually matter as much as the foundation you build it on. Clive details his method of keeping data private by relying on Canadian data sovereignty laws rather than default US cloud services. He also explains why setting strict guardrails on AI agents and keeping a human in the loop is the only way to avoid contributing to the growing volume of AI-generated slop online. Listeners will discover practical ways to adopt AI without getting locked into a single platform. You will learn how pre-trained agents can handle real business workflows, such as checking construction invoices for fraud, while maintaining your brand voice and data security. If you want to move past the hype and deploy AI safely, this episode provides a clear roadmap. Key Takeaways * The specific AI model you choose matters less than the infrastructure and guardrails you build around it. * Hosting data on localized servers provides data sovereignty and protects corporate information from broad surveillance laws like the US Patriot Act. * Fully autonomous agents still confabulate, making human oversight necessary to maintain quality and prevent AI slop. * Building an LLM-agnostic system lets you switch between models like OpenAI, Claude, and Cohere without losing your historical data. * You can eliminate the garbage output problem by pre-training agents with established standard operating procedures and specific brand voices. * Practical AI adoption focuses on tight operational tasks, like auditing supplier invoices for erroneous charges or managing an executive calendar. ABOUT CLIVE Clive Moore is a Canadian entrepreneur and agency veteran with 25+ years building brands and creative teams. He's the founder of GPT Studio, a Canadian-hosted, model-agnostic enterprise AI orchestration layer built for teams that need speed without surveillance. His work challenges the assumption that better AI means better models—proving that 10–15x gains come from better infrastructure around existing models. He calls this "infrastructure over magic." GPT Studio is built on Canadian soil, for organizations that treat data sovereignty as architecture, not compliance. CHAPTERS 00:00 The Designer's Approach 05:53 gptstudio and workilo 13:15 Ad 13:47 AI Adoption Fear 16:41 gptstudio's Userbase 18:55 Ad 19:06 Servers and AI Agents 25:08 AI Platform Locking 27:50 Teaching in the Age of AI 31:08 What's Next? WHERE TO FIND CLIVE • Website: https://gptstudio.workilo.io/ • LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/clivemoore • Instagram: https://instagram.com/clivemoore1979

Stop Panic-Buying AI: The Silver Bullet Myth That's Making You Slower ft. Asim Kumar

Mark Wormgoor sits down with network architecture veteran Asim to unpack what 32 years in the technology trenches teaches you about surviving massive industry shifts. Asim earned his CCIE certification in the year 2000, right before the dot-com bubble burst, and later pursued an MBA and CFA prep right into the teeth of the 2008 financial crash. Now, as the industry faces the wave of generative AI and agentic automation, Asim shares how those historical failures forced him to stop buying the industry panic and start building personal resilience. Mark and Asim dive deep into the reality of "vibe coding" and agentic AI, exploring how non-technical founders and seasoned engineers alike are building entire platforms over a single weekend. But with rapid deployment comes massive risk. They discuss the critical "black box problem," why security must be built-in by design rather than bolted on as an afterthought, and why the ultimate tech leadership superpower in the era of AI isn't prompt engineering, it's governance and human oversight. Whether you are a founder rushing a new build to market or an enterprise executive steering a legacy modernization project, this conversation serves as a practical blueprint for balancing your people, processes, and technology when the ground beneath you is shifting fast. ABOUT ASIM Asim Kumar is a Solution Architect who bridges the gap between deep technical systems and human psychology. Holding the industry’s highest credentials (CCSP, CISSP, CCIE, PMP, MBA, MSIS), I spent 30+ years "unblocking" multimillion-dollar networks for global enterprises. But his most profound expertise comes from a personal battle. For two decades, he lived a dual life—a celebrated Tech Consultant by day, but secretly "blocked" by fear and significant losses in the financial markets by night. This struggle taught him a critical paradox: You cannot fix a blocked mindset with a faster technology. Now, as the author of UNBLOCKED: The Power of Real Intelligence in the Era of AI, he challenge the modern obsession with technology. he helps leaders and entrepreneurs move from "Fear-Based Decision Making" to strategic clarity. His core message is that while Artificial Intelligence offers speed, only Real Intelligence (empathy, discipline, and focus) provides direction. CHAPTERS 00:00 What's New In The Era of AI? 11:26 Worldwide Technology 13:51 Ad 14:21 Cybersecurity In The Age of AI 16:12 Panic Selling vs Panic Buying 22:36 Applying AI in Today's Market 29:04 Ad 29:15 The Problem With Vibe Coding 33:29 Who is "UNBLOCKED" for? 37:06 What's the Next Step? WHERE TO FIND ASIM • Website: https://avignallc.com/ • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/asim-avigna/ • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/asim.avigna • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@asim-avigna

Why Dropping AI Into a Broken Process Makes Everything Worse ft. Mike Toguchi

Most technology leaders start by looking at the tool. Mike Toguchi, Chief Strategy Officer at Tectonic, argues that is the wrong beginning. If you drop AI into a broken process, you don't fix the problem, you only accelerate the failure. Mike joins the conversation to discuss why the most critical technology decisions often happen outside the engineering team and how to build systems that scale without drowning in technical debt. Mike brings a unique perspective as a strategist who studied government and politics rather than computer science. Having spent 23 years evolving with the same company, he has seen the transition from simple web digitization to the current age of AI. We talk about the "bad cop" role a partner must play in forcing standardization across departments and why the biggest hurdle to digital transformation is rarely the code, but the legacy silos and people who protect them. We also dive into the reality of AI governance and policy. Mike shares how his team navigates the tension between rapid innovation and protected data in high-stakes environments like university disability services. It is a discussion about judgment, critical thinking, and why the next two years will separate the leaders who aggressively pursue change from those who simply try to limp along. ABOUT MIKE Michael "Mike" Toguchi is the Chief Strategy Officer at Tectonic, formerly eResources, where he leads platform direction for application management systems that streamline complex processes like scholarships, grants, admissions, and accessibility services. With over 25 years of experience driving digital transformation for universities, non-profits, foundations, and associations, Michael specializes in simplifying internal workflows to help mission-driven teams reduce manual work, scale sustainably, and strengthen compliance. His work powers organizations including Stanford, UC Davis, PG&E, the Roddenberry Foundation, and Google’s Certified Innovator Program. At the core of his mission is a commitment to building technology that enables teams to focus less on managing systems—and more on delivering meaningful impact. CHAPTERS 00:00 Politics to Technology?!??! 06:08 What is Tectonic? 11:55 Ad 12:27 23 Years of Growth and Change 15:41 The Value of People 19:51 Customization Accommodation 26:44 Ad 26:55 Who Makes Technology Decisions? 28:25 AI Implementation and AI Policy Issues 36:36 The Future of Tech WHERE TO FIND MIKE * Website: https://www.teamtectonic.com/ * LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/miketoguchi/

3 Critical Career Mistakes Engineering Leaders Make ft. Limor Bergman Gross

This episode focuses on the transition from technical execution to organizational impact. Limor Bergman Gross shares how many engineering managers get stuck because they focus solely on being good at their jobs. She explains that promotion to director or VP levels requires a shift in focus. It is no longer about how well you code or manage a sprint, but about how well the organization knows your impact. The conversation explores the "trust gap," where leaders mistakenly believe their direct manager is the only one who needs to see their value. Limor and Mark discuss the necessity of building strategic relationships across the company. They provide a framework for stakeholder management that relies on curiosity and solving business problems rather than internal politics. This approach helps technical leaders gain the visibility needed for executive roles. Finally, the discussion covers the practicalities of leadership like delegating effectively and giving direct feedback. Limor highlights the "busy trap" where leaders fill their schedules with low-impact tasks to feel productive. She offers strategies for pushing back on non-essential requests to create space for strategy. The episode concludes with advice on using the Radical Candor framework to build high-performing teams through clear, empathetic communication. ABOUT LIMOR Limor Bergman Gross is a former Director of Engineering with over 20 years of experience across software engineering, engineering management, and organizational leadership. She has led teams through growth, scaling pressure, and complex delivery environments, working closely with CTOs and senior executives to align technology, people, and business priorities. Known early in her career as the “reliable leader” and escalation point, Limor learned firsthand how high-performing leaders can unintentionally become bottlenecks at scale. Today, she works as an executive leadership coach with senior engineering leaders and CTO-adjacent roles, helping them transition from hands-on decision-makers to strategic leaders who build teams that think, decide, and execute independently. Her work focuses on decision-making, ownership, leadership culture, and the real trade-offs tech leaders face as they move from execution to executive impact. CHAPTERS 00:00 Software Engineer to Leadership 06:33 Getting Promoted 14:39 Ad 15:11 What are You Busy With? 20:26 How to Give Feedback 22:53 Female Engineers! 24:50 Coaching The Executives 29:08 Ad 29:19 Getting Unstuck 36:54 Working with Different People 40:45 What is Your Impact? WHERE TO FIND LIMOR • Website: https://limorbergman.com/podcast/ • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/limorbergman/ • Instagram: https://instagram.com/limorbergman • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LimorBergman