Shows / AI for Founders with Ryan Estes
AI for Founders with Ryan Estes
AI for Founders is where 47,000+ founders learn to build and scale with AI. Hosted by Ryan Estes, a Denver investor, creator, and founder, the show breaks down real strategies from top operators and AI visionaries. AI-ready data, zero-dependency workflows, founder-led distribution, and the tools driving revenue for today’s fastest-growing companies. If you’re a technical or non-technical founder who wants to work smarter, scale faster, and stay competitive, this podcast is your weekly unfair…
Episodes
AI for Founders with Ryan EstesI already know you hate taxes
Business owners, I already know you hate taxes. Not the “ugh, paperwork” kind of hate. I mean the kind of hate where you’d rather get dental work at a gas…
AI for Founders with Ryan EstesDoctors aren’t the problem
Hot take: Healthcare doesn’t have a diagnosis problem. It has a time problem. And that time problem is quietly ruining lives. Most patients get 13 minutes with…
- AI for Founders with Ryan Estes
Why your ‘Great Idea’ Is quietly killing your startup
You know that moment when your “vibe coded MVP” finally gets users… and then it starts breaking in ways you can’t even explain? That’s where Mike Vitez shows…
AI for Founders with Ryan EstesBuilt a $2M SaaS for contractors from his Mom's room
You ever watch a “non-tech” industry get quietly eaten alive by a kid with a phone and zero patience? Kai Stone went from post-college degenerate mode to…
AI for Founders with Ryan EstesHours are worthless. Replace them with this.
You raised a seed round. You sold the dream to investors. You sold the dream to your team. And now comes the part nobody budgets for… the dream might be wrong…
AI for Founders with Ryan EstesStop designing screens. Start designing patterns.
Most startups don’t break because they lack talent. They break because the product quietly splits into parallel universes. One team ships a feature. Another…
AI for Founders with Ryan Estes“Just Use AI” Is the most dangerous advice in tech
What if the biggest AI risk in your company isn’t hallucinations… it’s that you’re quietly turning your team into button clickers. Because right now…
AI for Founders with Ryan EstesReality check every founder needs in 2026
It’s late December energy. The year’s basically over. The cookies are gone, the group chats are quiet, and this is the one moment where you’re allowed to stop…
AI for Founders with Ryan EstesMost AI prototypes die before launch
If you have an app idea and it is still living in Notes, you are not “early.” You are stuck. Because the new founder trap is not lack of code. It is fake…
AI for Founders with Ryan EstesNever lose flow again
Welcome to AI for Founders, I'm Ryan Estes. Founders, you’re not stuck because your idea is bad. You’re stuck because your AI won’t do the last 10%… and you’re…
AI for Founders with Ryan EstesThe Hidden Leadership Gap
Welcome to AI for Founders, I'm Ryan Estes. Every founder I know is sprinting to keep up with AI. New tools. New models. New expectations. But here’s the…
AI for Founders with Ryan EstesAI That Turns Ideas Into Real Companies
Welcome to AI for Founders, I'm Ryan Estes. Every non-technical founder hits the same wall. You’ve got the idea. You’ve got the market. You’ve even got early…
AI for Founders with Ryan EstesAI Can Predict Disease Years Early
What happens when you build an AI that can spot disease years before symptoms, cut diabetes related complications by 20 percent, and slash healthcare costs…
AI for Founders with Ryan EstesWorld’s Smartest Podcast App
Welcome to AI for Founders, I'm Ryan Estes. Today’s episode starts with a simple question: What happens when the world’s smartest podcast app is built in a…
AI for Founders with Ryan EstesVibe Coders Rejoice
Today’s episode starts with a simple but brutal truth: Vibe coding breaks the moment your idea gets bigger than “make the button blue.” Every founder knows…
AI for Founders with Ryan Estes10 Million Americans’ Healthcare Behind the Scenes
Today’s episode starts with a problem almost every founder fears… What happens when the system you're trying to disrupt is so big, so regulated, and so…
AI for Founders with Ryan EstesYour Onboarding Is Broken
Welcome to AI for Founders, I'm Ryan Estes. Today’s episode starts with a problem every founder knows too well: You finally get a user into your product… and…
AI for Founders with Ryan EstesMillennials Will Inherit Trillions
Welcome to AI for Founders, I'm Ryan Estes. Most of us were never really taught how money works—we were taught how to earn it, maybe how to spend it, but never…
AI for Founders with Ryan EstesAI That Predicts the Future
Welcome to AI for Founders, I'm Ryan Estes. Today’s episode starts with a problem every founder secretly wrestles with: the future is moving faster than your…
AI for Founders with Ryan EstesHow Do I Protect My Idea?
Welcome to AI for Founders, I'm Ryan Estes. If you’re building something in AI and you haven’t checked the patent landscape, there’s a non-zero chance someone…
AI for Founders with Ryan EstesAI Friends That Actually Call You (And They Remember Everything)
Welcome back to AI for Founders, I'm Ryan Estes. What happens when your most reliable teammate isn’t an app… it’s a voice that calls you at exactly the right…
AI for Founders with Ryan EstesThe Offshore Kingdom: How Penbrothers Builds Teams That Scale
Welcome back to AI for Founders, I'm Ryan Estes. Today’s episode starts with a tension every founder feels but rarely admits: What do you do when the talent…
AI for Founders with Ryan EstesThe $1.5 Trillion AI Problem Nobody Talks About - Until Now
Welcome back to AI for Founders, I'm Ryan Estes. AI is sprinting, but most enterprises are stuck doing the splits — one foot on a mainframe, one foot in the…
AI for Founders with Ryan EstesYour company Is sitting on a data gold mine
Welcome back to AI for Founders, I am Ryan Estes There’s a mountain every company is quietly climbing — not of code or customers, but of unstructured data…
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The $40,000 Desk: Why Offices Will Never Be the Same Again
Welcome to AI for Founders I am Ryan Estes. You are probably feeling the whiplash right now. Your office lease was signed in 2018 for 10 years, your team is…
AI for Founders with Ryan EstesHe Built 10 AI Companies in 12 Months - With Teams of Five
There’s a problem simmering under the surface of the AI boom that nobody wants to say out loud: The tech is evolving faster than founders can keep up — and the…
AI for Founders with Ryan EstesAgentic AI, Deepfakes and the End of Passwords
In this episode of AI for Founders, Ryan Estes sits down with Jasson Casey, CEO of Beyond Identity, and Josh from Brand Hospitality Group to unpack what…
AI for Founders with Ryan EstesTurn Illiquid Equity Into Real Wealth
Greg Brogger of Collective Liquidity Guest: Greg Brogger, Founder and CEO of Collective Liquidity Show: AI for Founders with Ryan Estes Episode Overview What…
AI for Founders with Ryan EstesBuilding A Restaurant AI Startup From Zero To 1,000 Customers In A Year
Friday night in a busy restaurant, the phones never stop ringing and up to 40 percent of calls never get answered. Loman AI turns that chaos into captured…
AI for Founders with Ryan EstesAI Is Rewiring Pregnancy Care: Babyscripts CEO on RPM, Risk, and Real Outcomes
Guest: Anish Sebastian, CEO & Co-Founder, Babyscripts Host: Ryan Estes Episode Summary Maternal mortality is rising in the U.S. while access to care lags…
AI for Founders with Ryan EstesAI storytelling for families
Guest: Ricardo Vice Santos, CEO and co-founder of DreamStories.ai Topic: Agentic content studio, personalized children’s books, character-consistent AI…
AI for Founders with Ryan EstesReddit SEO for AI Search: How to Win ChatGPT Recommendations
AI for Founders — Danny Kirk (ReddiReach) Show Notes Episode summary Reddit has become a prime source for AI training data and AI search results. Founder Danny…
AI for Founders with Ryan EstesPlugging AI Into Production: How MyOp Lets Non-Developers Ship UI Safely
Guest: Keren Fanan, Co-Founder & CEO, MyOp.dev Topic: Plugging AI-generated UI into production without breaking your core app Episode overview AI can now…
AI for Founders with Ryan EstesEarly warning for neurology and mental health with voice AI
Henry O’Connell, CEO of Canary Speech — Voice Biomarkers, and Real-Time Clinical Support Summary Canary Speech turns everyday conversation into clinical-grade…
AI for Founders with Ryan EstesBuilding a Gen Z Art Platform without the Algorithm Trap: Devika Sarin of Soal
AI for Founders Guest: Devika Sarin, Founder of Soal (thisissoal.com) Topic: AI-powered art discovery, taste mapping, and community-driven curation for…
AI for Founders with Ryan EstesFounder’s guide to 10x visibility
AI for Founders with Dave Polykoff, Founder of Zenpost Episode Summary In this episode of AI for Founders, Ryan Estes sits down with Dave Polykoff, the founder…
AI for Founders with Ryan EstesAI Comment Moderation, Brand Safety, and Viral Conversions: Stanify.ai’s Playbook
AI for Founders — Show Notes Guest: Hank Leber, cofounder of Stanify.ai Topic: Turning the comment section into conversions with multilingual…
AI for Founders with Ryan EstesDrew Falkman builds products at the speed of thought
AI for Founders – Guest: Drew Falkman Summary In this episode of AI for Founders, Ryan Estes talks with Drew Falkman, a veteran product strategist and AI coach…
AI for Founders with Ryan EstesBuilding an AI Chief of Staff: Ambient by Lawrence Coburn
Show Notes: Lawrence Coburn, CEO & Co-founder of Ambient Serial founder Lawrence Coburn (DoubleDutch, Twine) returns with Ambient, an AI Chief of Staff that…
AI for Founders with Ryan EstesInside the $50M mission to fix clinical evidence
Guest: Dr. Brigham Hyde, Co-Founder & CEO of Atropos Health Episode Summary: In this episode, Ryan Estes interviews Dr. Brigham Hyde to explore how Atropos…
AI for Founders with Ryan EstesBuild Remote Operations that Work: Isaac Kassab (Pearl Talent)
How Isaac Kassab Scaled Pearl Talent to $10M in ARR Guest: Isaac Kassab (Pearl Talent) Host: Ryan Estes, AI for Founders Overview In this episode of AI for…
AI for Founders with Ryan EstesFrom Farm to Mac App Store: How Heberti Built Pinery for Authors
Building Pinery with Heberti Almeida Summary From a stormy Brazilian farm to the Mac App Store. Former Square engineer Heberti Almeida spent seven years…
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Newsletters outsell social: Eunice Tan on building kawara.ai
AI for Founders with Eunice, Co-founder and CTO of Kawara.ai Topic: Turning creator content into newsletter-driven sales Summary Eunice explains how…
AI for Founders with Ryan EstesSomatic leadership for founders: Owen Marcus on stress, presence, and performance
AI for Founders — Owen from Meld on Somatic Leadership, Founder Resilience, and Community Guest: Owen Marcus, co-founder of Meld (Men’s Emotional Leadership…
AI for Founders with Ryan EstesCold email, LinkedIn, and the $2M lead gen playbook
Royan Nidea on Scaling to $100K Months with Setters Philippines In this episode of AI for Founders, Ryan Estes sits down with Royan Nidea, founder of Setters…
AI for Founders with Ryan EstesFuture of Payments: AI Agents, Micropayments, and Embedded Finance
Episode Summary In this episode of AI for Founders, Ryan Estes sits down with Alfonso Gómez-Jordana Mañas, co-founder of Crossmint and former Google/WhatsApp…
AI for Founders with Ryan EstesBefore You Shake Hands, read this. Elle George on partnership alignment
Elle George on Founder Alignment, Partnerships, and Hard-Won Lessons Episode Summary Founder and author Elle George breaks down her new book “Before You Shake…
AI for Founders with Ryan EstesBuilding virtual power plants with AI and blockchain
Solmag.ai and the Future of Peer-to-Peer Energy | AI for Founders Solmag.ai and the Future of Peer-to-Peer Energy In this episode of AI for Founders, Ryan…
AI for Founders with Ryan EstesSecure First, Scale Fast: ProArch CTO/CISO on AI That Won’t Break Compliance
AI for Founders — Ben Wilcox (ProArch) Episode Summary CTO/CISO Ben Wilcox breaks down how to build a secure foundation before layering on AI and data. We…
AI for Founders with Ryan EstesFuture of privacy-first computer vision in security tech
In this episode of AI for Founders, Ryan Estes sits down with Galvin Widjaja, Founder and CEO of Lauretta.io, the privacy-first AI company transforming how…
AI for Founders with Ryan EstesHow SmartLab builds STEM Identity: hands-on ecosystems for future-ready students
AI for Founders — Show Notes Guest: Jennifer Berry (CEO, SmartLab / Creative Learning Systems) Topic: Building STEM identity, designing “aha moment” learning…
AI for Founders with Ryan EstesZero to $6M ARR with AI SDRs
AI for Founders — Show Notes Guest: Gaurav Bhattacharya, CEO & Co-founder, Jeeva.ai Topic: Agentic AI for sales. From zero to $6M ARR in under nine months…
AI for Founders with Ryan EstesSwan AI hit $1M ARR in 9 weeks with just 3 founders
In this episode of AI for Founders, Ryan Estes sits down with Amos Bar-Joseph, co-founder and CEO of Swan AI. With just three people on the team, Swan scaled…
AI for Founders with Ryan EstesOutcome pricing vs Usage pricing vs Seats
Guest: Mark Walker, CEO of Nue.io Topic: Revenue Lifecycle Management, AI-era pricing, quote-to-cash, experimentation at enterprise speed Episode Snapshot…
AI for Founders with Ryan EstesBuilding the Next-Gen Retail Investing Platform: Tradesk
Episode Summary In this episode of AI for Founders, Ryan Estes sits down with Eric Chu, CEO of Tradesk, to unpack how he’s building the next-generation retail…
AI for Founders with Ryan EstesBootstrapped Icons8 into millions of users
AI for Founders: Ivan Braun of Icons8 and Generated Photos In this episode of AI for Founders, Ryan Estes sits down with Ivan Braun, founder of Icons8 and…
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Vibe coding a movie trailer in 20 minutes
AI for Founders: Vibe Coding a Movie with Fernanda Episode Summary In this episode, Ryan and Fernanda push vibe coding into new creative territory: making a…
AI for Founders with Ryan EstesAI in Enterprise: Security, governance, and robots
Episode Summary In this episode of AI for Founders, Ryan Estes sits down with Jim Spignardo, Director of Cloud Strategy and AI Enablement at ProArch, to unpack…
AI for Founders with Ryan EstesFloot helps non-coders build full-stack apps with AI
Episode Summary In this episode of AI for Founders, Ryan Estes sits down with Yuj, co-founder of Floot.com and part of Y Combinator’s Summer 2025 batch. Floot…
AI for Founders with Ryan EstesCreate a defensible niche in AI SaaS
Episode Summary In this episode of AI for Founders, Ryan Estes sits down with Daniel Yoo, founder and CEO of FinMate AI, the first AI note-taker designed…