Most open source companies do the same thing. They take investor money, lock their best features behind paywalls, sell the company, and disappoint everyone. Grokability did something different.

Jeremy Price, VP of Technology at Grokability talks with Corey Quinn about how they built a business that makes enough money without chasing endless growth. From why they use simple technology to how they run thousands of separate installations for customers, Jeremy explains what happens when you care more about making a good product than explosive growth.

Show Highlights:

(00:51) Welcoming Jeremy Price from Grokability

(03:34) How Snipe-IT Started With a Bet

(05:30) Paying for Software Can Change Everything

(07:40) When AWS Competes With Open Source

(10:10) Boring Businesses Make Money

(15:30) Balancing Hosting Needs and Product Quality

(18:00) Pricing That Avoids Big Customer Problems

(21:06) Better Than a Google Sheet

(27:02) The Psychology of Buying

(29:33) Where to Find Jeremy and Grokability

Links:

https://jermops.com/about/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremygprice/

https://snipeitapp.com/company

Sponsored by:
duckbillhq.com

Corey Quinn reconnects with Keith Townsend, founder of The CTO Advisor, for a candid conversation about the massive gap between AI hype and enterprise reality. Keith shares why a biopharma company gave Microsoft Copilot a hard no, and why AI has genuinely 10x’d his personal productivity while Fortune 500 companies treat it like radioactive material. From building apps with Cursor to watching enterprises freeze in fear of being the next AI disaster in the news, Keith and Corey dig into why the tools transforming solo founders and small teams are dead on arrival in the enterprise, and what it'll actually take to bridge that gap.

About Keith Townsend
Keith Townsend is an enterprise technologist and founder of The Advisor Bench LLC, where he helps major IT vendors refine their go-to-market strategies through practitioner-driven insights from CIOs, CTOs, and enterprise architects. Known as “The CTO Advisor,” Keith blends deep expertise in IT infrastructure, AI, and cloud with a talent for translating complex technology into clear business strategy.
With more than 20 years of experience, including roles as a systems engineer, enterprise architect, and PwC consultant, Keith has advised clients such as HPE, Google Cloud, Adobe, Intel, and AWS. His content series, 100 Days of AI and CloudEveryday.dev, provide practical, plainspoken guidance for IT leaders. A frequent speaker at VMware Explore, Interop, and Tech Field Day, Keith is a trusted voice on cloud and infrastructure transformation.

Show Highlights
(01:25) Life After the Futurum Group Acquisition

(03:56) Building Apps You're Not Qualified to Build with Cursor

(05:45)Creating an AI-Powered RSS Reader

(09:01) Why AI is Great at Language But Not Intelligence

(11:39) Are You Looking for Advice or Just Validation?

(13:49) Why Startups Can Risk AI Disasters and AWS Can't

(17:28) You Can't Outsource Responsibility

(19:52) Business Users Are Scared of AI Too

(23:00) LinkedIn's AI Writing Tool Misses the Point

(26:42) Private AI is Starting to Look Appealing

(29:00) Never Going Back to Pre-AI Development

(34:27) AI for Jobs You'd Never Hire Someone to Do

(39:09) Where to Find Keith and Closing Thoughts

Links

The CTO Advisor: https://thectoadvisor.com

Sponsor:
https://www.sumologic.com/solutions/dojo-ai
https://wiz.io/crying-out-cloud

In this episode of Screaming in the Cloud, Corey Quinn sits down with Rubrik’s GM of AI, Dev Rishi, to unpack the real story behind enterprise AI adoption, the rise of agentic systems, and why most organizations are still stuck in read-only mode. Dev breaks down how Rubrik’s Agent Rewind brings safety, observability, and resilience to AI-driven actions, solving the “Oh no, the agent deleted production data” problem before it happens. From deep learning’s evolution to the massive gap between consumer AI enthusiasm and enterprise risk posture, this conversation is a candid, insightful look at the AI future Global 2000 companies are racing toward… or cautiously tiptoeing into.

Show Highlights

(00:25) Understanding Rubrik and Agent Rewind

(00:50) Challenges in AI and Disaster Recovery

(01:27) Guest Introduction: Dev Rishi from Rubrik

(01:44) The Evolution of AI in Enterprises

(02:33) Starting an AI Company: The Backstory

(05:10) Generative AI and Its Impact

(07:15) Enterprise AI Trends and Challenges

(08:56) The Future of Agentic AI

(18:03) AI in Customer Support

(22:03) Rubrik's Acquisition and AI Strategy

(29:30) Launching Rubrik Agent Cloud

(31:26) Lessons from Starting a Machine Learning Company

(35:25) Conclusion and Contact Information

Sponsor:
Rubrik: https://www.rubrik.com/sitc