Build Real AI Products (Fast): Product Manager to Community Builder with Kurt Yang (Fintech & EdTech, RAG, Embedded Finance)

From banker to PM to community catalyst, Kurt Yang shares how non-engineers are shipping functional AI prototypes, validating with customers, and turning meetups into massive and strong ecosystems.

Chapters:
4:17 – Community lessons for PMs
8:34 – De-risking AI with stakeholders
12:50 – Tooling spotlight: Lovable in practice
17:07 – Prototyping workflows that scale
21:24 – Embedded finance & risk-based pricing
25:41 – RAG in fintech/edtech (what works)
29:57 – Stack, Supabase, and next steps

What you’ll learn

From frustration to community: how Kurt spun up GenAI for Fintech & EdTech and grew it to ~800 members.

Lean PM, real signals: why working, functional prototypes beat pretty mockups—and how to run smoke tests with real users.

Tooling that compounds: using Lovable + Supabase (+ ChatGPT) to ship usable prototypes you can measure.

RAG, demystified: practical walkthroughs and when retrieval-augmented generation actually reduces hallucinations.

Fintech shift: embedded finance + dynamic risk-based pricing and alternative credit scoring to hyper-personalised offers.

Enterprise adoption: winning over senior stakeholders in regulated industries (trust, governance, records).

Founder traps to avoid: solution-first bias, over-scoping; how to pick a lower-risk wedge to earn trust and revenue.

Mindset: “Don’t just think, start.” Momentum over perfection.

About Digital Nexus

A founder-led podcast where Australia’s AI builders go beyond the hype with real workflows, decisions, and lessons from shipping. Hosted by Mark Monfort & Chris Sinclair.

Support the show

Other Links
🎙️our podcast links here: https://digitalnexuspodcast.com/
👤Chris on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/pcsinclair/
👤Mark on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/markmonfort/
👤 Mark on Twitter - https://twitter.com/captdefi

SHOWNOTE LINKS
🔗 SIKE - https://sike.ai/
🌐Digital Village - https://digitalvillage.network/
🌐NotCentralised - https://www.notcentralised.com/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@DigitalNexusPodcast
X (twitter): @DigitalNexus

Michelle Gilmore (CEO & Co-founder, Juno) built a digital twin of herself to scale her business. Juno conducts high-quality, qualitative interviews—turning Michelle's 20+ years, and 10,000+ research projects into an AI “listening engine.” We dive into how Juno runs real conversations at scale, why expertise-in-the-loop beats checkbox surveys, and how a digital twin lets a CEO focus on strategy while the AI handles the heavy lifting.

Guest & company:
Michelle Gilmore, CEO & Co-founder, Juno
Juno is an AI research platform that runs real interviews on your behalf

You’ll learn:
What Juno actually does (and how it differs from “conversational surveys”)
Why Michelle raised $2.8M from Blackbird Ventures to build a global “listening engine”
How she captured her tacit expertise to train agents (principles, role-plays, competencies)
Fear vs. reality: AI won’t replace her, it amplifies and scales her impact
When AI is a feature vs. a product and why the answer is “it depends”

Why this matters:
Most teams still send surveys and get thin, leading data. Juno probes, follows up, and helps people articulate what they actually think and feel, so product and research teams can act with confidence.

Key moments (chapters):
00:00 Cold open & why “clone the CEO”
06:00 From researcher to founder: Michelle’s path to Juno
12:00 What Juno actually does (beyond surveys)
18:00 Building the Digital Twin CEO: capturing tacit expertise
24:00 Co-CEO in practice: decisions, prioritisation, removing the founder bottleneck
33:00 Fear vs reality: risks, adoption, and what leaders get wrong about AI
38:00 Scaling quality without burnout: ops, team, and metrics
42:00 Founder playbook: what to delegate first + what’s next for Juno

👋 New here? Subscribe for weekly founder and industry leader deep-dives on AI and product, a new episode every Tuesday!

🔔 Hit the bell so you don’t miss the next founder story.

Support the show

Other Links
🎙️our podcast links here: https://digitalnexuspodcast.com/
👤Chris on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/pcsinclair/
👤Mark on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/markmonfort/
👤 Mark on Twitter - https://twitter.com/captdefi

SHOWNOTE LINKS
🔗 SIKE - https://sike.ai/
🌐Digital Village - https://digitalvillage.network/
🌐NotCentralised - https://www.notcentralised.com/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@DigitalNexusPodcast
X (twitter): @DigitalNexus

From IBM strategist to startup founder, Serena Lam is building Fuzzy AI to reshape B2B sales with hyper-personalized outreach. In this candid conversation, she shares her founder journey, lessons from building in AI, and where sales tech is heading next.

👉 Expect practical founder advice, the realities of building with limited resources, and insights into how design thinking and AI workflows are changing the game.

⏱️ Chapter Timestamps

0:00 – Intro & why Serena flew budget class from Singapore
4:33 – How IBM shaped Serena’s mindset as a founder
8:32 – First startups, painful failures & losing money early
13:02 – The hardest part: finding (and keeping) the right tech co-founder
17:48 – Inside Fuzzy AI: turning content & trust into 5x higher conversions
22:01 – Killing the “spam cannon” & making outreach human again
26:41 – Why Serena prototypes in Figma before writing a single line of code
31:38 – AI tools Serena swears by (Claude, Perplexity, Bolt & more)
35:54 – Which jobs AI will replace… and which remain uniquely human
40:30 – The future of sales: cultural nuance, agentic AI & trust-based buying

🔑 Key Takeaways

🎯 Startups succeed when founders go all-in — half measures don’t work.

🤖 AI isn’t just automation — it’s strategy amplification when applied right.

🛠️ Design thinking + scrappy prototyping can save you months of wasted work.

💡 The future of sales = humans handling trust + negotiation, AI doing the grind.

💡 Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe for more AI founder stories & weekly Digital Nexus tech breakdowns!

Support the show

Other Links
🎙️our podcast links here: https://digitalnexuspodcast.com/
👤Chris on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/pcsinclair/
👤Mark on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/markmonfort/
👤 Mark on Twitter - https://twitter.com/captdefi

SHOWNOTE LINKS
🔗 SIKE - https://sike.ai/
🌐Digital Village - https://digitalvillage.network/
🌐NotCentralised - https://www.notcentralised.com/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@DigitalNexusPodcast
X (twitter): @DigitalNexus

In this episode of Digital Nexus, we sit down with Sha-mayne Chan, Co-founder of Friyay and Wakey Wakey Sales, to unpack how AI is reshaping startups, SMEs, and big business in Australia.

We cover:

🚀 How startups can now build products without a tech co-founder
📱 The story behind Wakey Wakey, an AI SMS sales assistant helping small businesses scale
🏦 Why big corporates are finally moving past endless POCs and into real AI adoption
🛠️ The rise of agentic workflows vs. AI agents — and what that means for service design
💡 How founders can “build while flying” with today’s AI tools (Bolt, Cursor, Windsurf, Midjourney, etc.)
🧠 The ethical, cultural, and human challenges of AI adoption — from junior job pathways to mental health chatbots

00:00 Intro
05:30 Backgrounds & early career
08:30 Small business growth: SMS vs email; 'product‑a‑month'
12:30 The Wakey story
16:30 Enterprises: from POCs to compliant rollouts
19:30 Where the pain is: manual checks & team ops
23:30 Service design: account UX, cancel flows, blueprints
29:00 Risk, value, and choosing bets
34:00 Automation & shipping fast (prompts, traction)
37:30 Vibe coding tools → personal app; VC outlook
42:30 Wrap‑up + what’s next

Links:
Friyay - https://www.friyay.ai/
Sha-Maybe linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/shamaynechan/

Podcast - https://www.digitalnexuspodcast.com/

Support the show

Other Links
🎙️our podcast links here: https://digitalnexuspodcast.com/
👤Chris on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/pcsinclair/
👤Mark on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/markmonfort/
👤 Mark on Twitter - https://twitter.com/captdefi

SHOWNOTE LINKS
🔗 SIKE - https://sike.ai/
🌐Digital Village - https://digitalvillage.network/
🌐NotCentralised - https://www.notcentralised.com/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@DigitalNexusPodcast
X (twitter): @DigitalNexus

In Episode 32 of Digital Nexus, we go from the bush to the boardroom. Kev the Yowie returns as we unpack the latest in AI trends, Google’s Gemini V3, OpenAI’s new business features, and Perplexity’s research mode. We dive into AI adoption in Australia, explore how Perplexity outperforms in real-world research comparison tests, and showcase our entry into the world’s largest AI hackathon. Plus, we reveal how ambient agents and agentic workflows are quietly reshaping knowledge work and how businesses can futureproof their operations.

🛠 Built with Bolt
🚀 Sponsored by FEX Global
🎯 Stay till the end for a side-by-side showdown of ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity.

⏱️ Chapter Timestamps
00:00 – Kev the Yowie returns + Intro banter + AI work we've been up to
12:33 - Sike demo update
13:52 – AI adoption in Australia: Productivity Commission report
17:28 – AFR AI Awards + Aussie winners
18:11 – Andrej Karpathy’s GPT model breakdown
21:00 – Mary Meeker’s return with 340-page AI megareport
24:05 – AI World’s Fair & newsletter automation workflows
33:12 - Mistral Code
37:05 – More OpenAI news: Memory upgrades for free users
39:20 - ChatGPT connectors
46:20 - Bolt World's largest hackathon and discussion of our joint project
52:00 - Comparison Deep dive: Perplexity vs ChatGPT vs Gemini vs Claude

Show links:
Aus Gov releasing AI Adoption Tracker - https://www.industry.gov.au/publications/ai-adoption-tracker
Karpathy explainers on current state of LLMs - https://x.com/karpathy/status/1929597620969951434
AFR AI Summit Articles- https://www.afr.com/afrlive/ai-summit
Mary Meeker report - 340 page - https://www.bondcap.com/report/tai/
Mistral Code client - https://techcrunch.com/2025/06/04/mistral-releases-a-vibe-coding-client-mistral-code/
Anthropic AI writing it’s own blog articles with human oversight - https://techcrunch.com/2025/06/03/anthropics-ai-is-writing-its-own-blog-with-human-oversight/
Chat GPT updates for plus users - https://www.financialexpress.com/life/technology-openai-upgrades-chatgpt-for-free-and-plus-users-check-out-new-features-you-can-enjoy-3868505/
OpenAI introduces new business features - https://techcrunch.com/2025/06/04/chatgpt-introduces-meeting-recording-and-connectors-for-google-drive-box-and-more/

Support the show

Other Links
🎙️our podcast links here: https://digitalnexuspodcast.com/
👤Chris on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/pcsinclair/
👤Mark on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/markmonfort/
👤 Mark on Twitter - https://twitter.com/captdefi

SHOWNOTE LINKS
🔗 SIKE - https://sike.ai/
🌐Digital Village - https://digitalvillage.network/
🌐NotCentralised - https://www.notcentralised.com/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@DigitalNexusPodcast
X (twitter): @DigitalNexus

🚀 Episode 31 Post-Google I/O Shockwave, Agentic AI Chaos & a $1M Hackathon?
🎙️ Hosted by Chris & Mark | Witty, high-energy, and absolutely packed with insights

Still catching your breath from Google I/O?
So is the entire AI industry. In this episode, the boys sift through the aftershocks—and unearth gold from the companies overshadowed by Google’s tidal wave.

🔥 Highlights this week:

🧠 AI Whiplash

Google’s I/O left everyone reeling—VO3, NotebookLM mobile, and that wild try-on shopping tool

Veo’s hyperreal video generation sparks laughs, awe, and deepfakes anxiety

⚔️ Agentic AI Arms Race

Anthropic’s Claude 4 drops new tools: Files API, prompt caching, voice mode, web search for free users

Microsoft Copilot unleashes multi-agent orchestration—build AI “coworkers” in Excel

OpenAI eyes dominance with GPT login features and memory tweaks

Perplexity enters the dashboard arena: AI-powered spreadsheet tools + live data visualizations

Mistral, DeepSeek, Opera, and xAI all launch agent-powered updates

🏆 $1M Hackathon Alert!

Bolt drops a global AI build challenge with 50,000+ participants

Chris & Mark are entering—expect a future demo 👀

Free domains, hosting, Bolt Pro credits included

🎭 Real Talk + Satire

AI-generated stunts? Cooking with plutonium? The guys joke (and worry) about the rise of hyperreal content

Need for blockchain-based digital IDs to verify real vs fake

Ethical dilemmas in AI-powered therapy

Links:
Google NotebookLM: https://blog.google/technology/ai/notebooklm-app/
Copilot Multi-Agent: https://news.microsoft.com/build-2025/
Claude 4: https://www.anthropic.com/news/agent-capabilities-api & https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-4
Singin with ChatGPT: https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/27/openai-may-soon-let-you-sign-in-with-chatgpt-for-other-apps/
Mistral AI: https://mistral.ai/news/agents-api
Salesforce buys Informatica: https://www.salesforce.com/news/press-releases/2025/05/27/salesforce-signs-definitive-agreement-to-acquire-informatica/
Deepseek R1 update: https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/28/deepseek-updates-its-r1-reasoning-ai-model-releases-it-on-hugging-face/
Opera browser update: https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/28/operas-new-browser-can-code-websites-and-games-for-you/

🎯 Takeaway
"AI’s moving fast. Stay curious, stay building, and don’t get left behind."

📲 Hit play to decode the chaos. Because this week... was anything but normal.

Other Links
🎙️our podcast links here: https://digitalnexuspodcast.com/
👤Chris on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/pcsinclair/
👤Mark on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/markmonfort/
👤 Mark on Twitter - https://twitter.com/captdefi

SHOWNOTE LINKS
🔗 SIKE - https://sike.ai/
🌐Digital Village - https://digitalvillage.network/
🌐NotCentralised - https://www.notcentralised.com/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@DigitalNexusPodcast
X (twitter): @DigitalNexus

📍 New studio. Bigger ideas. Massive week in AI.

Mark & Chris celebrate the “Dirty 30” of Digital Nexus in style—recording from a new space powered by FEX Global—and dive headfirst into the wildest week of AI news we’ve seen yet.

🔥 In this episode:

• Google’s AI Overload from I/O: Gemini’s supercharged updates, life-like video generation with Veo, try-on AI in Google Shopping, new coding tools & search redefined
• OpenAI's big moves: Codex evolution, a creative collab with design legend Jony Ive, and a shift away from wearables
• Claude 4 is here – smarter, more aware, and refusing to play dumb
• Agents vs. Agentic AI – What’s the difference, and why does it matter for real-world workflows?
• AI in therapy? Exploring the ethics of chatbots providing emotional support in Asia
• Startups to watch: LM Arena grabs $100M, Meta’s open-source push, and Manus AI’s image-gen agent revolution

💡 Quote of the week:
"Change is hard, but this is exciting change."

🔗 Whether you're a founder, technologist, or just trying to keep up, this episode breaks down what’s now, what’s next, and what actually matters.

🎧 Listen now and join the AI ride. It’s only getting faster.

Other Links
🎙️our podcast links here: https://digitalnexuspodcast.com/
👤Chris on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/pcsinclair/
👤Mark on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/markmonfort/
👤 Mark on Twitter - https://twitter.com/captdefi

SHOWNOTE LINKS
🔗 SIKE - https://sike.ai/
🌐Digital Village - https://digitalvillage.network/
🌐NotCentralised - https://www.notcentralised.com/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@DigitalNexusPodcast
X (twitter): @DigitalNexus

In this episode of Digital Nexus (#29), we dive into the latest in AI tools, prototyping trends, and productivity myths. We explore how Australians are using AI, updates from OpenAI and Claude, and why most people are still prompting AI wrong. We break down MVPs vs prototypes, share insights from MBA teaching sessions, and unpack Google’s move into Figma-style tools. Plus: what “vibe coding” really means, why you still need to understand your dev process, and how to stay employable in an AI-driven world. Stick around for details on our creative writing comp—with a seriously decent prize pool.

🔍 Topics:
- How AI is really being used in Australia — stats and surprises
- The difference between MVPs, prototypes, and proof of concept
- Why AI isn’t always saving time — especially in desk jobs
- The real reason your prompts aren’t working (and how to fix them)
- OpenAI’s nonprofit stance + Sam Altman’s congressional grilling
- NotebookLM’s big Gemini 2.5 update
- Claude’s new APIs and research engine
- Google’s move into Figma-style AI design tools
- “Vibe coding” explained — and its risks
- How to stay valuable in an AI-powered job market
- Fast prototyping with tools like Bolt, Uizard, and Figma
- A future-fiction writing competition (with a solid prize pool)

#AItools #ProductDesign #PromptEngineering #OpenAI #DigitalNexusPodcast

Other Links
🎙️our podcast links here: https://digitalnexuspodcast.com/
👤Chris on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/pcsinclair/
👤Mark on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/markmonfort/
👤 Mark on Twitter - https://twitter.com/captdefi

SHOWNOTE LINKS
🔗 SIKE - https://sike.ai/
🌐Digital Village - https://digitalvillage.network/
🌐NotCentralised - https://www.notcentralised.com/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@DigitalNexusPodcast
X (twitter): @DigitalNexus