In this episode of Mantle Mondays, Amar Varma sits down with Arif Bhanji (co-founder of Lazer Technologies) to share his entrepreneurial journey, insights into AI and product development, and the importance of culture, speed, and founder-led vision in building successful tech companies.

00:00 Introducing Arif Bhanji

04:52 The timing of entering the tech and AI space

08:21 The mindset shift12:05 Building Fiix

20:23 The impact of YC

24:29 Operating at Silicon Valley speed in Canada

30:47 Understanding the role of an FDE and team composition

37:11 Hiring strategies and building a strong team

43:42 Rapid fire & closing

Robert Saunders grew up building iOS apps in high school, worked on Shopify's platform and Shop App teams, then left a comfortable job to bet on a problem he'd just lived through: a slow, confusing, paper-based real estate closing on his first condo.

That bet became Ownright, a digital real estate law firm that handles residential property closings, sales, and refinances across Ontario.

In this episode, Amar Varma talks with Rob about his path from engineer to founder, and the growth journey since:

• The bad condo closing that became the idea for Ownright
• Scaling from one closing a day to 50

• Where Ownright is headed next

Learn more about Ownright: https://ownright.comManage your cap table with Mantle Equity: https://www.withmantle.com/equity

Follow Mantle Mondays for weekly conversations with founders building through the AI shift.

00:00 - Meet Rob Saunders

08:28 - Building Ownright

20:45 - Building inside a regulated industry

36:35 - Scaling in the AI world

44:12 - Support as a founder

47:39 - The future of Ownright

52:50 - Rapid fire & closing

Everyone romanticizes persistence. Almost nobody teaches founders how to pivot.

Last October, Sam Pajot-Phipps and his co-founders (Kirk Simpson and Peter Carrescia of Wave fame) made the call to sunset goConfirm, a peer-to-peer identity verification product used across 600+ communities on Facebook and Reddit. Tens of thousands of people loved it. The metrics looked promising. And they shut it down anyway.

In this episode, Sam breaks down exactly how they knew: the milestones that kept getting hit without compounding, the difference between a wedge and product market fit, and why the most uncomfortable decision is often the right one.

Then we get into what they built next. Courtyard AI is betting that AI assistants are becoming the front door for how customers find businesses, and that small businesses (your local HVAC company, gym, restaurant) are dangerously underserved for that shift. Sam explains how Courtyard builds a living knowledge base that makes small businesses discoverable to ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini.

Follow Mantle Mondays for weekly conversations with founders building through the AI shift.