In this episode, we sit down with Jocelyn Goldfein, Managing Director at Zetta Venture Partners, former engineering leader at Facebook and VMware, and one of the most respected voices in AI-driven innovation. Jocelyn offers a candid look into how today’s leaders evaluate AI opportunities, why project selection determines 80% of success, and what executives get wrong when adopting emerging technologies.

From identifying tractable use cases to building for real ROI, Jocelyn breaks down the frameworks every CFO, CTO, and operator needs to ensure their AI investments create meaningful business impact—not just impressive demos.

Whether you're navigating early experimentation or scaling AI across the enterprise, this conversation delivers the clarity modern leaders need to make confident strategic decisions.

• Project selection is the make-or-break factor in AI success — most failures stem from choosing problems that are too high-stakes or too low-impact.
• “Toy problems” kill momentum — even technically successful AI builds won’t get deployed if they don’t deliver value.
• Successful AI adoption requires cross-functional ownership — CFOs and technical leaders must align on resources, constraints, and business outcomes.
• The AI frontier is accelerating scientific innovation — many recent Nobel-adjacent breakthroughs have leveraged AI to expand the boundaries of discovery.
• Experimentation is essential, but it must be purposeful — companies need intentional guardrails to avoid wasted cycles and stalled pilots.

In Episode 2, we’re joined by Kiran Hebbar, Chief Financial Officer at Alloy, the leading identity decisioning and fraud prevention platform serving over 750 financial institutions and fintechs. Kiran brings a uniquely well-rounded perspective—blending experience as a CFO, venture investor, and engineer. Before Alloy, he served as CFO at mParticle and spent a decade as General Partner at Valhalla Partners, investing in early-stage B2B SaaS companies.

Kiran sits down with hosts Johnnie Walker (Rooled) and David Hemenway (The Angel Nest Podcast) to explore:

-How Kiran’s venture background shaped his approach to operational strategy and investor relations.

-How Alloy’s leadership turned a CEO’s mission into measurable strategic pillars and financial targets.

-Lessons in scaling a usage-based model and defining metrics that matter.

-How Alloy is innovating with AI-driven fraud detection and balancing automation with customer experience.

-Why modern CFOs must master sales, marketing, and product fluency to drive enterprise value.

-The communication, forecasting, and data discipline every CFO needs to inspire investor confidence.

Cassie Young, General Partner at Primary Venture Partners, sits down with Johnnie Walker, co-founder of Rooled, and David Hemenway, host of the Angel Nest to Speak C-Suite.