EPISODE 18

In this candid, fast-paced solo episode, Jason and Kevin unpack the systems behind their ideal weeks, why founders should prioritize health like a product launch, and how to build a ride-or-die team that spans multiple startups. From hiding jets from repo men to wearing smart glasses on the beach, they share war stories, personal rituals, and the mindset that separates cautious operators from calculated risk-takers.

CHAPTERS

00:00 – The Casino Story That Saved FedEx

01:04 – Building Your Perfect Week

05:14 – Big Company Constraints Are (Mostly) Self-Imposed

10:00 – Health Is Your Only Asset

16:08 – Boomerangs vs. Boomer Rides

LINKS

Connect with Kevin

LinkedIn • X/Twitter

Connect with Jason

LinkedIn • X/Twitter

RESOURCES

Meta Ray Ban Wayfarer

Tune Up Fitness

Myo

EPISODE 17

Water‑tech pioneer Ravi Kurani explains how a floating pool‑chemistry robot became the ultimate hardware moat, why proprietary water data unlocks service marketplaces, and where trillion‑dollar opportunities lie at the water‑energy nexus. He recounts two years on Shenzhen factory floors perfecting Sutro, selling the startup before mass production, and now plotting to buy it back to tackle agriculture, cooling towers, and AI data centers. Hosts Jason Shafton and Kevin Henrikson unpack story‑driven design, founder persistence, and the future of “smart” water.

CHAPTERS

00:00 – From Pools to Robotics: Ravi’s origin story

03:44 – Hardware Moats & Proprietary Water Data

07:11 – Sutro as the “Nest Cam” for Your Pool

09:01 – Water as Tech’s Next Trillion‑Dollar Frontier

16:36 – Founder Mode in China: Two Years on the Factory Floor

LINKS

Connect with Ravi

Sutro • Liquid Assets Podcast • LinkedIn • X/Twitter

Stay Connected with Founder Mode

Subscribe to our newsletter: foundermode.kit.com

Connect with Kevin

LinkedIn • X/Twitter

Connect with Jason

LinkedIn • X/Twitter

EPISODE 16

From living two years out of a suitcase to shipping AI products at Microsoft-scale, Angus Logan joins Kevin and Jason to unpack how “failing forward” accelerates learning. He explains why product teams should break things early each morning, how to shield a fast-moving startup culture inside a corporate giant, and the importance of weekly shipping cadences. Angus also shares his “LifeOps” playbook—100 travel-buddy rules, zero checked bags, and decision templates that free up brainpower—plus how culture-soaking trips and five-year-old Android phones keep him designing for real-world users everywhere.

CHAPTERS

00:00 – Why failure is fuel

03:34 – Angus on rapid AI experimentation

06:50 – Integrating startups into Microsoft

10:58 – LifeOps: travel hacking & decision systems

18:47 – Global perspective and takeaways

LINKS

Connect with Angus

LinkedIn • Newsletter

Stay Connected with Founder Mode

Subscribe to our newsletter: foundermode.kit.com

Connect with Kevin

LinkedIn • X/Twitter

Connect with Jason

LinkedIn • X/Twitter

EPISODE 15

AI builder Shuja Keen joins Kevin and Jason to trace his 20-year journey from building offshore labor forces to AI-native operations. He explains how falling bandwidth costs kicked off globalization, why today’s custom LLM agents are ready while people and processes lag, and how an abundance mindset lets founders redesign workflows instead of bolting AI onto old playbooks. Using metaphors like orthotics that adapt to your feet, Shuja shows how bespoke software, not one-size-fits-all packages, will unlock personalization in healthcare, education, and beyond—and urges founders to stop selling car parts and deliver the full “Uber” experience.

CHAPTERS

00:00 – Outcomes Over Tools: The Uber Analogy

04:31 – Onshore → Offshore → AI: Shuja’s 20-Year Lens

11:32 – Custom Software & the Abundance Mindset

17:06 – AI’s Impact on Healthcare, Education & Inclusion

21:02 – Founder Playbook for 2025

LINKS

Connect with Shuja Keen

786 Ventures • LinkedIn • X/Twitter

Stay Connected with Founder Mode

Subscribe to our newsletter: foundermode.kit.com

Connect with Kevin

LinkedIn • X/Twitter

Connect with Jason

LinkedIn • X/Twitter

EPISODE 14

In this episode of Founder Mode, we hit the gym with legendary trainer Coach Lou Perrotta—who's spent decades working with elite entrepreneurs, celebrities, and top performers. Coach Lou shares how fitness, mindset, and consistency create compounding results—both in the gym and in business. From towel pull-ups in hotel rooms to 15-minute daily routines, Kevin, Jason, and Coach Lou talk about building mental resilience, breaking plateaus, and why the best founders train their bodies as relentlessly as they train their minds.

CHAPTERS

00:00 – Why Every Founder Needs a Coach

01:05 – Coach Lou’s Origin Story

03:38 – Health is the First Investment

05:21 – Use What You Have

08:20 – Focus, Transformation, and Final Lessons

LINKS

Connect with Coach Lou

Instagram

Stay Connected with Founder Mode

Subscribe to our newsletter: foundermode.kit.com

Connect with Kevin

LinkedIn • X/Twitter

Connect with Jason

LinkedIn • X/Twitter

EPISODE 13

Kevin Henrikson and Jason Shafton sit down with serial entrepreneur Dennis Mortensen (IndexTools, Visual Revenue, x.ai, and now LaunchBrightly) to unpack what it was really like to build an AI company years before large-language models existed. Dennis recounts owning the x.ai domain before Elon Musk, hand-labeling 32 million emails to train an early scheduling agent, and the costly product-design decisions that followed. He shares hard-won lessons on focusing on pain over technology, reverse-engineering post-acquisition goals, and why parenting teenagers is the ultimate sales boot camp. Dennis then introduces LaunchBrightly, his new platform that automates every product screenshot in your help center—and he caps the chat with an exclusive free-setup offer for Founder Mode listeners.

CHAPTERS

00:00 – x.ai Before Elon

01:34 – Hand-Labeling 32 Million Emails

05:45 – Product Design > Prediction Precision

14:45 – Birth of LaunchBrightly

29:56 – Special Offer & Next Steps

OFFER
Mention “Founder Mode” when you connect with LaunchBrightly to get your first batch of up to 1,000 automated screenshot-update recipes created for free.

Connect with Dennis
LaunchBrightly • LinkedIn • X/Twitter

Stay Connected with Founder Mode

Subscribe to our newsletter: foundermode.kit.com

Connect with Kevin

LinkedIn • X/Twitter

Connect with Jason

LinkedIn • X/Twitter

EPISODE 12

From building gravity-defying camera rigs for Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity to sending drones into live nuclear reactors and, most recently, designing job-site robots that can survive the dust and chaos of construction, Asa Hammond’s career shows how precision engineering and artistic vision can coexist. In this conversation, Asa explains how the exacting pixel-perfect discipline of Hollywood VFX became the blueprint for ultra-reliable industrial robotics, why safety and repeatability always come before flashy features, and how new UX layers—voice, LLMs, demonstration learning—are finally making complex machines feel like familiar tools. Along the way, we hear tales of full-scale “stunt-double” reactors, the reality of folding-laundry robots, and what it takes to assemble a world-class, T-shaped engineering team that thrives at the edge of possibility.

CHAPTERS

00:29 – From Film Sets to Founders: Show Intro

02:12 – Asa’s Hollywood-to-Hard-Hats Origin Story

05:57 – Engineering Robots for Gravity

09:05 – Reinventing Construction with Industrial Arms

15:56 – Flying Drones Inside Nuclear Reactors

LINKS

Connect with Asa Hammond

Website • LinkedIn • X/Twitter

Stay Connected with Founder Mode

Subscribe to our newsletter: foundermode.kit.com

Connect with Kevin

LinkedIn • X/Twitter

Connect with Jason

LinkedIn • X/Twitter

EPISODE 11

From hand-carving a single silicone spatula in her kitchen to running a portfolio of revived consumer brands, Sam Rose walks Kevin and Jason through the through-line of her career: obsess over the customer, build a brand (not just a product), and make logistics as lovable as design. She explains how a “collision with the customer” on Kickstarter forced her into customer-service mode before she even had inventory, why color stories beat strict SKU rationalization, what the GIR sale to Pattern taught her about single-channel risk, and how vertical integration led to Manifest’s 3PL and the launch of Endless Commerce. Sam also breaks down AI’s role in just-in-time inventory, predicts an LLM-powered shopping future that both excites and unnerves her, and offers two free months of her commerce OS to fellow founders.

CHAPTERS

00:00 – Collision with the Customer & Kickstarter Lessons

02:44 – Scaling GIR: Color Stories vs. SKU Discipline

07:32 – Acquisition Insights: Building a Balanced Brand Portfolio

09:54 – Manifest & the Cost of Learning Curves

13:03 – Endless Commerce and AI-Driven Supply Chains

OFFER

Get two months free on any tier and free onboarding to Endless Commerce when you mention the Founder Mode podcast or that Jason & Kevin sent you!

LINKS

Connect with Samantha Rose

endlesscommerce.com • LinkedIn • X/Twitter

Stay Connected with Founder Mode

Subscribe to our newsletter: foundermode.kit.com

Connect with Kevin

LinkedIn • X/Twitter

Connect with Jason

LinkedIn • X/Twitter