Ep 37 | 5 Product Traps Killing AI Projects (and What To Do Instead w/ Kurt Yang)

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.

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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