"There's no magical growth lever. You just do a good job, every day, for 23 years, and the referrals do the rest."

I talked with Matt Watts, founder of MWA Projects and author of Made With Ambition, on Startup Hustle this week. Matt designs and builds some of the most striking commercial spaces in the world, from Jimmy Choo's London HQ to Nike showrooms, Net-a-Porter, and a new lounge for Netflix.

Here's what you'll get out of it:

⚡ Why there's no magic growth lever, and how one great job snowballed into Nike, Hermès, ASOS, and Stella McCartney through pure referral

⚡ How a difficult childhood and a bitter divorce shaped the risk appetite so many entrepreneurs share, playing not to lose instead of playing to win

⚡ The AI horror story where a tool invented 10 years of Harrods experience for his head of facilities "because it thought it sounded better"

⚡ Why case studies are the mistake too many founders skip, and how showing beats telling in a visual business

⚡ Why the CEO has to drive the marketing, and why "TikTok next week" is now on the agenda

⏱️ Episode Breakdown

00:48 Introduction and Guest Background

01:52 Starting in Construction and Key Clients

03:18 The Inspiration Behind the Book

03:55 Early Life Challenges and Lessons Learned

06:35 Common Entrepreneurial Traits and Backgrounds

09:09 Key Lessons from the Book

09:59 Business Lessons for Tech Entrepreneurs

11:27 Impact of AI on Construction and Design

13:22 Acquiring Big Name Clients and Referrals

15:56 Building a Scalable Business Model

17:56 The Power of Case Studies and Content Marketing

19:37 Showcasing Work Through Content and Videos

23:32 Final Advice and Closing Remarks

Links & Resources

Connect with Matt Watts on LinkedIn

Website: MWA Projects

What Smart CTOs Are Doing Differently With Offshore Teams in 2025

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Full Scale – Build your dev team quickly and affordably

If you're building a business the slow, durable way, this one is worth your time.

Listen to the Startup Hustle podcast anywhere you listen to podcasts!

"Both things are true. Software jobs are projected to grow 15%, and 74% of employers say they can't fill the roles. That's the whole story of IT staffing in 2026."

This week on Startup Hustle, Matt Brown, Full Scale's head of marketing, put me in the guest chair to walk through our new State of IT Staffing report, a data-heavy look at where tech hiring actually stands heading into 2026.

Here's what you'll get out of it:

⚡ The 2026 paradox, why the field isn't shrinking but the entry ramp into it is breaking, with new-grad hiring down 65% at big tech

⚡ Why the job shifted from "engineering" back to "development," and why AI made product thinking the scarce skill

⚡ Why AI sped up the typing but left the judgment exactly as hard, so the value moved to senior people

⚡ Why retention is the number the industry can't fake, and why AI turned it from nice-to-have into the whole game

⚡ Why software has never been cheaper to build, and why that's a reason to build more, not cut

If you're hiring engineers, leading a team, or building a career in software, this one is worth your time.

⏱️ Episode Breakdown

00:33 Introduction and overview of the episode

02:39 Full scale's employee satisfaction and recognition

05:30 The impact of AI on software development roles

10:40 The 2026 paradox: job growth vs. role filling

15:35 The importance of product thinking and customer feedback

20:36 Decoupling headcount from output with AI

25:21 Remote work, location independence, and cultural shifts

30:37 Running engineering teams in 2026 and beyond

35:35 The need for strategic focus and organizational agility

40:37 Conclusion and key takeaways from the episode

Links & Resources

Read the full report - [https://fullscale.io/blog/state-of-it-staffing/

Full Scale(https://fullscale.io/blog/state-of-it-staffing/`Full) – Build your dev team quickly and affordably

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If you're trying to get your team out of the basement and into real product ownership, this episode is your playbook. Stop being a ticket factory. Build teams that think, create, and lead.

"AI scribes are just a feature. The record of clinical judgment is the moat."

I talked with Kush Shah, founder and CEO of Noted Dent, on Startup Hustle this week. Noted Dent uses AI to handle clinical documentation for dentists, so practitioners aren't stuck writing notes at 11pm or on the weekend, and so they're covered when the auditors and health funds come knocking.

Here's what you'll get out of it:

⚡ Why vibe coding gets you to an MVP and no further, and why Kush deleted 8,000 lines of AI-generated code in three months

⚡ Why the job of a software engineer has changed, and how AI has actually made it more human

⚡ Why demand, not product, is the hardest thing in any business, even eight years in

⚡ Why startups are the best place for young engineers to learn, and why job-title silos hold them back

⚡ What actually makes the leap to CEO so hard when you come from a technical background

If you're a technical founder, an engineer eyeing your next move, or anyone building in a regulated space, this one is worth your time.

Listen to the Startup Hustle podcast anywhere you listen to podcasts!

⏱️ Episode Breakdown

01:06 Introduction and Anthony Jackson's background

02:47 Is software development dead again?

03:48 The impact of AI on coding and human judgment

04:41 The importance of responsibility in software development

06:33 The challenge of product management and customer feedback

10:52 Transitioning from individual contributor to manager

12:00 Building effective teams and leadership culture

15:14 Anthony Jackson's leadership OS book and approach

19:00 The significance of company and team culture

21:41 The impact of good and bad managers

22:06 Anthony Jackson's newsletter and coaching

23:48 Connecting software developers with customers

25:40 Empathy for users and understanding their experience

29:06 Where to find Anthony Jackson's resources and books

Links & Resources

Connect with Kush Shah on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kush-shah-kush/

Noted Dent - https://noteddent.com/

What Smart CTOs Are Doing Differently With Offshore Teams in 2025

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Full Scale – Build your dev team quickly and affordably

If you’re trying to get your team out of the basement and into real product ownership, this episode is your playbook. Stop being a ticket factory. Build teams that think, create, and lead.

Follow the show, rate it, and send this to someone who’s still trying to do “real Scrum.” They need it more than you do.

"Back in the 1900s when I was crossing the Great Plains in a covered wagon, programming in the back, the cover headline was: Software Development is Dead."

I talked with Anthony Jackson, a CTO with 30 years across healthcare tech and enterprise software and author of the Architecture Protocol series, on Startup Hustle this week. Anthony is the creator of LeadershipOS, a framework for building teams that keep running when the leader isn't in the room.

Here's what you'll get out of it:

⚡ Why "software development is dead" has been a headline for 30+ years, and why the human judgment layer never goes away

⚡ Why the real gap isn't more engineers, it's product people (and engineers who think like them)

⚡ What actually changes when you go from individual contributor to manager, and why almost no company trains you for it

⚡ Why every line of code still needs a name attached to it, especially in regulated industries

⚡ How "lossy compression" quietly ruins decisions as they filter up and back down through management

⏱️ Episode Breakdown

00:32 Introduction and Anthony Jackson's background

02:13 Is software development dead again?

03:14 The impact of AI on coding and human judgment

04:07 The importance of responsibility in software development

05:59 The challenge of product management and customer feedback

10:18 Transitioning from individual contributor to manager

11:36 Building effective teams and leadership culture

14:41 Anthony Jackson's leadership OS book and approach

18:26 The significance of company and team culture

21:07 The impact of good and bad managers

21:38 Anthony Jackson's newsletter and coaching

23:14 Connecting software developers with customers

25:06 Empathy for users and understanding their experience

28:18 Where to find Anthony Jackson's resources and books

Links & Resources

Connect with Anthony Jackson on LinkedIn

Anthony Jackson's Website - https://technicaleader.coach

What Smart CTOs Are Doing Differently With Offshore Teams in 2025

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Full Scale – Build your dev team quickly and affordably

If you’re trying to get your team out of the basement and into real product ownership, this episode is your playbook. Stop being a ticket factory. Build teams that think, create, and lead.

Follow the show, rate it, and send this to someone who’s still trying to do “real Scrum.” They need it more than you do.

I don't view engineers being out of a job. I view software engineers finally coming back to a real job."

I talked with Adrian Gutierrez, co-founder of Ledgre, on Startup Hustle this week. Ledgre is an AI-native accounting platform built specifically for real estate investors, putting agentic AI to work doing the bookkeeping instead of handing you one more piece of software to manage.

Here's what you'll get out of it:

⚡ Why he was the startup's bookkeeper by hand for a year before writing a line of product, and why doing things manually first is the shortcut

⚡ Why AI didn't kill software engineering, it exposed that distribution and the value prop were always the hard part

⚡ Why domain knowledge beat his development skills every time when getting Ledgre off the ground

⚡ What running a startup as a digital nomad across Europe, Spain, and Argentina taught him about which problems are actually worth solving

⏱️ Episode Breakdown

00:42 Introduction to Adrian Gutierrez and Ledger

01:04 Adrian's background in FinTech and PropTech

00:49 The origin story of Ledgre and market gaps

02:54 How AI is transforming property management tools

04:11 Adrian's experience owning rental properties

05:18 The importance of domain knowledge in product development

06:18 Manual bookkeeping and workflow complexity

07:15 Scaling wisely and understanding problems before automating

08:24 The importance of iteration and customer feedback

08:52 Challenges of outreach and building relationships

10:16 Cold outreach and response rates

11:03 The impact of AI on distribution and problem-solving

12:10 AI exposing weaknesses in traditional software development

13:36 Reviving software engineering practices with AI

14:32 Shift in marketing and distribution roles

15:55 Using AI for marketing and SEO automation

17:22 AI's role in software development and team management

21:10 Living as a digital nomad and its impact on business

22:45 Traveling and understanding global fintech landscapes

24:33 Financial and payment infrastructure differences worldwide

25:13 The value of solving real problems in different markets

25:48 How to learn more about Ledger and Adrian

If you're building a product, leading engineers, or working in fintech and proptech, this one is worth your time.

Listen to the Startup Hustle podcast anywhere you listen to podcasts!

Links & Resources

Connect with Adrian Gutierrez on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/adrian--gutierrez/

Ledgre Website - https://www.ledgre.ai/

Most engineering teams are still optimizing for the wrong thing. They chase the speed of code when the real bottleneck is the speed of context. Matt Watson and Eban Bisong, founder and CEO of Senvi, get into what actually changes when AI moves from a coding tool to a teammate.

Eban has spent his career as a founding engineer, and his approach is hands-on: don't tell skeptical engineers AI works, show them, every standup, until the pushback turns into excitement. At Park DNA he built "RTD2," an OpenClaw-powered droid wired read-only into their data sources, Slack, and Jira. It answered support questions before an engineer could, created its own bug tickets, and joined meetings through Fireflies so nothing got lost. The lesson underneath all of it: record everything, because the team that captures the most context ships the right thing fastest.

Matt also shares his own three-week rabbit hole with Claude Cowork, $8K in tokens, a fully rebuilt Full Scale website, a thousand dead blog posts deleted, and 200 more rewritten. They go a few rounds on why it's a bad time to be a coder but a great time to be a builder, why "good enough" is a real standard and not a cop-out, and why ownership beats asking permission every time.

If you build software or lead an engineering team, listen now. And if you want to try Eban's voice-first AI journal, visit senvi.ai.

⏱️ Episode Breakdown

00:42 From Founding Engineer to Solo Founder

01:52 Using AI as an Engineering Leader

03:24 Building RTD2: An AI Teammate for Support

05:27 The Speed of Context, Not Code

06:11 Why You Should Record Everything

08:59 Winning Over AI-Skeptical Engineers

11:50 The AI Spectrum Across 80 Clients

13:35 A Bad Time to Be a Coder, a Great Time to Build

14:03 Why "Good Enough" Is Good Enough

14:52 Human-in-the-Loop and Reviewing AI's Work

16:28 Going All-In on Senvi

19:01 Validating the Product With a Beta Group

21:01 Bootstrapping a Truly AI-Native Company

Links & Resources

Connect with Eban Bisong on LinkedIn

Senvi.ai - senvi.ai

What Smart CTOs Are Doing Differently With Offshore Teams in 2025

Subscribe to the Global Talent Sprint

Full Scale – Build your dev team quickly and affordably

If you’re trying to get your team out of the basement and into real product ownership, this episode is your playbook. Stop being a ticket factory. Build teams that think, create, and lead.

Follow the show, rate it, and send this to someone who’s still trying to do “real Scrum.” They need it more than you do.

Most people are already asking AI about their health. Almost none of them believe the answers. Around 40% use it to make wellness choices, but fewer than 5% trust what it says. Matt Watson and Josh Anthony, CEO of Nlumn, dig into why.

Josh has spent 25 years in food and nutrition, and his take is blunt: trust drops fast as the question gets serious, from a recipe to a diagnosis, and the fix isn't a smarter chatbot. It's pairing the data with a human people actually trust. They cover what's real right now too. The protein obsession. Beans having a moment. GLP-1s and why weight loss is now about saving muscle, not just dropping fat. Why people are building their own messy personalization stacks because no single company does it well.

Matt also explains why he flat out ignores his doctors on cholesterol, and he and Josh go a few rounds on whether ultra-processed food is the problem or a missed opportunity.

If you build or invest in health products, listen now. And if you want help with personalized nutrition, reach [email protected] or [email protected].

⏱️ Episode Breakdown

00:28 Introduction to Health Tech and AI

03:36 Trust in AI for Health and Nutrition

06:29 Personalization in Health and Nutrition

09:26 Emerging Trends in Health Tech

12:23 The Role of GLP-1 in Weight Management

15:29 Challenges in the Food Industry

18:37 Innovative Products in Health and Nutrition

Links & Resources

Connect with Joshua Anthony on LinkedIn

Nlumn Website - https://www.nlumn.com/

Email - mailto: [email protected]

What Smart CTOs Are Doing Differently With Offshore Teams in 2025

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Full Scale – Build your dev team quickly and affordably

If you’re trying to get your team out of the basement and into real product ownership, this episode is your playbook. Stop being a ticket factory. Build teams that think, create, and lead.

Matt Watson sits down with Beth Epperson, founder and CEO of Legacy Purposed, here in the Kansas City area. Beth came up through marketing and branding, including the brand launch for Hyvee Arena, before deciding to build something of her own.

Her company is built around two products. Aligned Legacy measures how people think in real time and helps teams see how aware, connected, and aligned they actually are. HIKMET, or Wisdom Illuminated, keeps a company's knowledge governed and accurate so nothing walks out the door when an employee leaves.

Beth and Matt get into the messy reality of being a founder. She self-funded the whole thing, learned to code her own prototype, and pitched for over a year through a pile of rejections. She also walked away from a paid pilot because the people on the other side were not aligned on ethics and accountability.

Matt shares why he thinks Beth represents a new kind of founder. Sales first, build second, now that AI can help build the thing. They also dig into validating an idea, the pull you want to feel from customers, and why getting your first case studies is the hardest part.

If you have ever tried to get a product to market on your own, this one is for you.

⏱️ Episode Breakdown

00:38 Introduction to Legacy Purposed and Beth Epperson

03:37 Beth's Entrepreneurial Journey and Corporate Experiences

06:37 The Birth of Legacy Purposed and Its Mission

09:52 Understanding Emotions and Accountability in the Workplace

12:35 The Development of Innovative Tools for Corporate Growth

15:38 Challenges in Building and Marketing the Software

18:28 The Importance of Case Studies and Market Validation

21:37 Future Aspirations and Closing Thoughts

Links & Resources

Connect with Beth Epperson on LinkedIn

Legacy Purposed Website - https://legacypurposed.com/

Email - mailto:[email protected]

What Smart CTOs Are Doing Differently With Offshore Teams in 2025

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Full Scale – Build your dev team quickly and affordably

If you’re trying to get your team out of the basement and into real product ownership, this episode is your playbook. Stop being a ticket factory. Build teams that think, create, and lead.

Follow the show, rate it, and send this to someone who’s still trying to do “real Scrum.” They need it more than you do.

Data centers are multiplying fast, and the energy demands are staggering. Matt Watson sits down with Tim Tarver, founder and CEO of Exceed Geo Energy, to talk about one of the most underrated power sources in the conversation: geothermal. Tim breaks down how his company is adapting drilling technology from the oil and gas industry to generate clean, baseload energy almost anywhere in the country, why geothermal outlasts solar and wind by decades, and how it could be the right fit for the next wave of AI infrastructure.

If you're watching energy costs climb and wondering where the power for all these data centers is actually going to come from, this one's worth your time.

Listen now and learn why geothermal might be the energy answer nobody's talking about enough. And if you enjoyed this episode, leave us a review and subscribe so you never miss a conversation with the founders and operators building what's next.

⏱️ Episode Breakdown

00:44 Introduction to Data Centers and Energy Challenges

03:40 Geothermal Energy: A Sustainable Solution

06:33 The Role of Geothermal in Data Center Energy Needs

09:41 Entrepreneurship in Geothermal Energy

12:41 Water Usage and Cooling in Data Centers

15:40 Cost Comparison: Geothermal vs. Other Energy Sources

18:50 Technological Advances in Drilling and Geothermal Energy

21:48 Future of Geothermal Energy and Closing Thoughts

Links & Resources

Connect with Tim Tarver on LinkedIn

Exceed Geo Energy - http://www.exegeoenergy.com

What Smart CTOs Are Doing Differently With Offshore Teams in 2025

Subscribe to the Global Talent Sprint

Full Scale – Build your dev team quickly and affordably

If you’re trying to get your team out of the basement and into real product ownership, this episode is your playbook. Stop being a ticket factory. Build teams that think, create, and lead.

Follow the show, rate it, and send this to someone who’s still trying to do “real Scrum.” They need it more than you do.

Most retail investors don't know what to do after they open a brokerage account. Sean Tepper was one of them until he built a traffic light rating system for stocks and turned it into a SaaS platform used by 13,000 customers across 50 countries.

In this episode of Startup Hustle, Matt Watson sits down with Sean Tepper, founder and CEO of Tykr, to break down the real story behind building a B2C SaaS product in a crowded fintech space.

They get into why Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger inspired a process engineer to build a stock screener, how Tykr cuts through 100+ data points to give investors one simple signal, the broker API nightmare that nearly broke their best feature, and why onboarding is harder than the product itself. Sean also gets honest about the hiring mistake he made for years—and what finally changed.

If you're building a self-serve SaaS product or trying to find your footing as a solo founder, this one's worth your time. Tune in to Startup Hustle now.

⏱️ Episode Breakdown

00:41 Introduction to Ticker and Sean Tepper

03:31 The Journey of Building Ticker

07:04 Understanding the Stock Market and Investment Strategies

11:09 Building Trust and Confidence in Investment Decisions

21:31 Acquisition Strategies and Metrics for Success

16:21 The Impact of AI on Investment Platforms

19:41 Challenges in Building a High-Tech Investment Platform

22:11 Key Lessons Learned in Entrepreneurship

25:33 Final Thoughts and Team Dynamics

Links & Resources

Connect with Sean Tepper on LinkedIn

What Smart CTOs Are Doing Differently With Offshore Teams in 2025

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Full Scale – Build your dev team quickly and affordably

If you’re trying to get your team out of the basement and into real product ownership, this episode is your playbook. Stop being a ticket factory. Build teams that think, create, and lead.

Follow the show, rate it, and send this to someone who’s still trying to do “real Scrum.” They need it more than you do.

Eric Ries wrote The Lean Startup. Sold 2 million copies. Helped hundreds of people build companies from nothing. Now he's back with a harder question: why do so many of those companies eventually go bad?

In this episode, Matt Watson sits down with Eric to talk about his new book Incorruptible—a deep dive into the invisible forces that corrupt organizations, why profit-maximization becomes pathological, and what it actually takes to build a company that stays great.

They get into why the stage-gate development model keeps failing founders, the story of Saul Price and how Costco was born from a betrayal, and what a real fiduciary duty to your customer looks like in practice. Plus, how to structure your company so your values outlast you.

Listen to the full episode on Startup Hustle. And if Incorruptible sounds like your next read, pre-order it at incorruptible.co before May 26th.

⏱️ Episode Breakdown

00:37 Introduction to Eric Ries and The Lean Startup

06:57 The Journey to Incorruptible: A New Perspective

12:38 The Challenge of Short-Term Thinking in Business

16:14 Understanding Corruption in Business Practices

22:51 Building Trustworthy Organizations

31:03 Who Should Read Incorruptible?

Links & Resources

Connect with Eric Ries on LinkedIn

What Smart CTOs Are Doing Differently With Offshore Teams in 2025

Subscribe to the Global Talent Sprint

Full Scale – Build your dev team quickly and affordably

If you’re trying to get your team out of the basement and into real product ownership, this episode is your playbook. Stop being a ticket factory. Build teams that think, create, and lead.

Follow the show, rate it, and send this to someone who’s still trying to do “real Scrum.” They need it more than you do.