David Press was down to his last $7,000 with payroll due when a critical enterprise deal saved Risk Talk from collapse. After years of grinding through COVID lockdowns and cancelled flights, he and co-founder Stuart Farquharson built a voice-first safety reporting tool that now serves three of the world's five largest mining companies.

David is the technical co-founder of Risk Talk, a platform that makes safety reporting accessible for frontline workers through voice technology to solve a problem they heard directly from workers: "Why can't I just talk about it instead of filling out these shit forms?" Risk Talk achieves 97% transcription accuracy even in the loudest industrial environments and has grown to serve companies with 60,000+ employees globally.

He explains:
⬛ Why saying "no" to the world's biggest mining company over a feature request was their smartest product decision
⬛ How their MVP mantra "would Frankie use it?" shaped every design choice
⬛ Why they refuse to add "just one more question" - even if it costs them deals
⬛ How a single TikTok post generated leads from $40B companies
⬛ Being prepared to drive Uber with enterprise deals pending
⬛ Why building i18n from day one enabled their international expansion

Follow David Press
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-press-0020a516/
RiskTalk: https://risktalk.com.au/

More Founders Show
LinkedIn: /more-founders-show
YouTube: @morefoundersshow
Website: https://morefounders.show

Follow Dave
LinkedIn: /daveberner
X: @dave_or_dead
YouTube: @daveordead
Website: https://daveberner.me

Sponsors
Kinde: https://kinde.com

Former HR executive and psychology lecturer Nikki Tugano reveals how she transformed being fired into building a profitable SaaS company, starting with just an Excel spreadsheet and bootstrapping to $1M in funding.

Nikki is the founder and CEO of SeenCulture, a people analytics platform that identifies untapped talent within organizations. With a decade of leadership experience across Australia and the UK, plus a background teaching positive psychology at the University of Melbourne, she brought deep domain expertise to the startup world. When her employer dismissed her for championing a product vision too forcefully, she proved them wrong by building it herself. Starting with Excel and bootstrapping to revenue on day one, she now serves companies like Lassonde and CultureAmp.

She explains:
⬛ How getting fired became the catalyst for founding her company
⬛ Why starting with Excel was actually a strategic advantage
⬛ How 88 employees sent 900+ invites without being asked to
⬛ The reality of raising capital without a "friends and family" network
⬛ Why her domain expertise matters more than technical skills

Follow Nikki
LinkedIn: /nikkitugano
Website: https://seenculture.com/

More Founders Show
LinkedIn: /more-founders-show
YouTube: @morefoundersshow
Website: https://morefounders.show

Follow Dave
LinkedIn: /daveberner
X: @dave_or_dead
YouTube: @daveordead
Website: https://daveberner.me

Sponsors
Kinde: https://kinde.com

Kai Forsyth is the founder of Hall, a platform that monitors and optimizes how businesses appear in AI search results across ChatGPT, Claude, and other conversational AI platforms. After working as a product designer at Atlassian, Intercom, and Dovetail, Kai recognized that traditional SEO was being disrupted by AI-powered search. His team made a critical pivot from building community visibility tools to focusing entirely on AI visibility - a decision that transformed their trajectory and time-to-value from months to minutes.

When Google traffic to Kinde suddenly vanished, Dave assumed it was an algorithm change. Turns out, the entire game had shifted - people were searching through ChatGPT instead. In this episode, Kai Forsyth reveals how his team pivoted from building community tools to helping businesses survive the AI search revolution.

He explains:
⬛ Why Reddit and Wikipedia matter more than your company blog for AI visibility
⬛ How to get from idea to paying customers in 2 months with a team of 3
⬛ Why building a "sticky" product in 6 months is impossible
⬛ The counterintuitive approach to support - use engineers
⬛ How engineering can drive growth beyond just building core features
⬛ Why comparison content and listicles are "cringe but crucial" for AI discovery

00:00:00 - Intro
00:00:35 - SEO is dead, AI visibility is everything
00:01:34 - How AI search is disrupting traditional SEO
00:04:44 - Reddit suddenly controls your visibility
00:07:13 - The Reddit moderation nightmare for founders
00:10:14 - From community platform to AI visibility: the pivot story
00:12:15 - Why reviews and comparison pages drive AI citations
00:16:10 - Building the MVP in 2 months with 2 engineers
00:20:00 - The agency model: 1 customer becomes 20
00:24:10 - Time to value: from months to minutes
00:27:59 - First customers through targeted LinkedIn outreach
00:31:45 - 20% reply rate: the simple offer that works
00:35:39 - Why no product is sticky if built in 6 months
00:42:47 - Engineering velocity beats product differentiation
00:47:20 - Build free tools for distribution, not just features
00:53:20 - Staying sane in the AI hype cycle
00:58:57 - Balancing founder-led content with product building
01:02:07 - Your baseline AI visibility strategy
01:05:28 - Bonobo and the perfect focus music
01:13:44 - Connect with Kai and try Hall

Follow Kai Forsyth
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaiforsyth/
Website: https://usehall.com/

More Founders Show
LinkedIn: /more-founders-show
YouTube: @morefoundersshow
Website: https://morefounders.show

Follow Dave
LinkedIn: /daveberner
X: @dave_or_dead
YouTube: @daveordead
Website: https://daveberner.me

Sponsors
Kinde: https://kinde.com