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What do you do when you walk into a meeting and you're the youngest person there?

Landon and Tayseer are joined by Carter from our marketing team, who ran his own marketing group specializing in Meta and social media ads. We share the moments people doubted us because of our age, what we did about it, and what actually builds credibility fast.

We also break down research on founder age: across 2.7 million founders, the average age at founding was about 42, and the fastest-growing startups had founders averaging 45. The bigger predictor of success was industry experience, not age. Plus Harvard research showing that asking for advice can make you look more competent, not less.

Then Carter plays a skeptical 30-year business owner in our new game, Tough Room, and we get 30 seconds to win him over.

In this week's AI segment: California's "No Robo Bosses Act," AI and pricing at McDonald's and Walmart, the FTC's investigation into AI agents, new models from Google and Meta, and the AI chip stock selloff.

Final question: Who's one person older than you who knows something you need, and when are you going to ask them?

Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note.

Can either of us actually sell? And does the most famous sales scene in movie history teach the wrong lesson?

Before we get into it, a quick AI update on who is responsible when AI misbehaves:

• A new government AI group, the Superintelligence Force, chaired by Jay Clayton, with 120 days to study AI's risks and opportunities
• A bipartisan bill from Senators Hawley and Murphy that would make AI agent operators and developers criminally and civilly liable when their agents hack other systems
• A New York City Council hearing where OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta and Google were asked to guarantee their public AI agents would always follow safety rules, and none would
• A rough week for OpenAI: Sam Altman's comments on lighter rules, three safety researchers fired, and a nonprofit lawsuit

Then today's topic: do you know if you're being sold?

In this episode:

• The worst pitches we've made, and the worst pitch someone made to us
• What Harvard research says about why asking questions makes people like you more
• What the Wolf of Wall Street pen scene gets wrong, and what the real Jordan Belfort said about it, plus the caveat we say out loud about his history
• Do top sellers actually talk less than everyone else?
• Our game: sell a random object. A stapler, a single sock, a bag of ice, duct tape, a phone charger and a coffee mug
• The worst product reviews ever, including a one-star bag of ice from a Chick-fil-A Yelp page
• Is urgency a trick or real selling?
• How Landon opens outreach with a question about the business instead of a pitch
• Listener questions: the biggest technology mistake businesses make, where to start with AI, and how to know if AI is helping or creating more problems

This week's challenge: before you pitch anything, ask one more question, then stay quiet and listen. Tell us in the comments: the last time you were sold something, did the seller ask about you first?

Next week: a special guest, model Fred Kpoto, on how he made it in the modeling world.

Founders Unfiltered is hosted by the Vorena Team (Landon and Tayseer). Real people. Real ideas. A more honest tomorrow.

All our links: https://linktr.ee/foundersunfilteredpodcast Vorena AI: https://vorena-ai.com

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!

EPISODE DESCRIPTION

In modeling and in business, you are the product. On Episode 8 of Founders Unfiltered, Male Model of the Year Fred Kpoto joins Landon, Tayseer Jabour and Seth of Vorena AI to break down the business behind the image.

Fred talks about growing up in Liberia, trading soccer for a modeling career built from Lexington, Kentucky, and the 5 a.m. call that sent him to New York that night for a Premier League ad with Ian Wright. He walks through the six-day competition that ended with Male Model of the Year, how agencies book and represent models, and why most of the job is hearing "no" and staying consistent anyway.

We also cover:

- Money discipline when one job pays $10,000 and the next pays $200

- How to sell yourself without being fake

- What designers look for, and what "timeless" really means

- Building a portfolio when you have zero connections

- Why behind-the-scenes content gets him booked

- The best and worst sides of the modeling industry

Follow Fred: @fredkpoto · Follow us: @VorenaAI

All Founders Unfiltered links: https://linktr.ee/foundersunfilteredpodcast

Founders Unfiltered is a podcast about business, AI, technology and the realities of building something, hosted by the team behind Vorena AI.