A story about choosing what others avoid—and creating competitive advantage no one can copy.

This episode is for sales-led SaaS founders wondering why their AI product investments are not creating the competitive edge they expected.

Most SaaS companies race to add AI features and wonder why nothing changes.

Tal Peretz, CEO of Onfire, took the opposite path. Before writing a single line of code, he interviewed 275 revenue leaders. Then he spent months building a proprietary data layer from the public web—Reddit, Stack Overflow, Discord—tracking 50 million engineers. Only after that foundation was solid did he add AI on top.

The result: customers generating 4x more pipeline with the same headcount, $50 million in closed deals since beta launch, and a $20 million funding round.

And this inspired me to invite Tal to my podcast. We explore how mastering curiosity—reading signals competitors ignore—creates competitive moats that compound over time. Tal shares how 275 customer interviews revealed one critical pattern everyone else missed, and why choosing the hardest buyers simplified everything else. You'll discover why he spent months building invisible infrastructure before writing features, and how that decision alone separated Onfire from hundreds of AI tools fighting for attention.

We also zoom in on three of the 10 traits that define remarkable software companies:

• Master the art of curiosity
• Aim to be different, not just better
• Sell the idea, not the product

Tal's journey proves that remarkable companies don't chase the obvious path—they build the hard thing first, creating advantages no competitor can copy.

Here's one of Tal's quotes that captures his contrarian thesis:

"AI basically makes sales much harder, not easier, because the noise-to-ratio right now goes up. When we started the company, we said the main advantage is to find the needle in the haystack in your context. Building what we call our Knowledge Graph—this is probably the main IP of the company."

By listening to this episode, you'll learn:

• Why building infrastructure before features creates advantages competitors cannot replicate
• What customer discovery reveals when you interview hundreds before building anything
• Why focusing on the hardest segment often creates easier sales than targeting everyone
• Why adding intelligence to strong foundations beats bolting features onto weak data

For more information about the guest from this week:

Guest: Tal Peretz, Co-founder and CEO at Onfire

Website: onfire.ai

A story about solving two problems everyone else picks between.

This episode is for SaaS founders with deep domain expertise—and wondering why the market isn't responding the way they expected.

Most SaaS companies struggle because they know what the solution should be.

Panos Siozos, CEO of Learnworlds, came from a research background in educational technology—three generations of teachers, deep pedagogical expertise. He could have built the pedagogically perfect platform.

Instead, he put the scientists in the backseat and listened to what customers actually needed. That decision took him from building in isolation to 12,500 customers across 150 countries.

This inspired me to invite Panos to my podcast. We explore why expertise becomes dangerous when it drowns out customer truth. Panos shares what happens when your expertise blinds you to what customers already know. You'll discover why Learnworlds wins where every competitor chooses: learning depth or selling power.

We also zoom in on three of the 10 traits that define remarkable software companies:

• They offer something valuable AND desirable
• They master the art of curiosity
• They create NEW value possibilities

Panos's story is proof that customer problems beat perfect solutions.

Here's one of Panos's quotes that captures his customer-first philosophy:

"We put the scientists in the backseat. We said, Okay, now we may be theoretical experts in pedagogy and educational technology, but these guys, they have a problem. We need to solve their real problem, not the things that we have in our mind."

By listening to this episode, you'll learn:

• Why theoretical expertise becomes dangerous when it silences customer problems
• What happens when you marry deep capability with practical customer needs
• When customers show you markets you never planned to serve
• Why solving today's customer problem beats building tomorrow's perfect product

Guest Info

Guest: Panos Siozos, CEO & Co-founder Learnworlds Website: www.learnworlds.com

A story about how "everyone agrees" is the most dangerous lie in SaaS.

This episode is for SaaS founders frustrated watching their solution solve real problems—but wondering why no one actually buys it.

Most healthcare startups don't fail because their tech doesn't work. They fail because they can't find anyone willing to pay for it.

Mariano Garcia-Valiño, Founder and CEO of Axenya, spent 18 months proving his preventive care model worked clinically—reducing diabetes costs by 20% and mortality risk by 18%. Then he spent another year without selling a single dollar because insurers, hospitals, and patients all had reasons not to care enough to pay.

He found the answer by buying a healthcare broker and changing who he sold to: employers in Brazil who actually bear the cost and have the timeframe to benefit from prevention.

This inspired me to invite Mariano to my podcast. We explore why solving the right problem for the wrong buyer kills traction—and how changing your business model changes who cares. Mariano shares how he rejected the obvious paths (selling to insurers, doctors, or patients) and instead built a broker model that aligns incentives with outcomes. You'll discover why clinical proof means nothing without economic urgency.

We also zoom in on three of the 10 traits that define remarkable software companies:

• Acknowledge you cannot please everyone
• Master the art of curiosity
• Aim to be different, not just better

Mariano's story is proof that the best solution dies without the right buyer—and why changing your business model, not your product could be the easy way out.

Here's one of Mariano's quotes that captures the challenge he faced:

"It's one thing to actually see the problem and find a technical solution for the problem. It's a different thing to deploy it in the right place within a very complex value chain that has a lot of incentives that are not well aligned."

By listening to this episode, you'll learn:

• Why solving a highly valuable and critical problem alone won't create a market without economic incentive alignment
• What happens when you build for huge global humanity problems instead of expensive local ones
• Why focusing on who pays reveals better opportunities than focusing on who uses
• How buying your distribution channel creates stickiness competitors can't copy

For more information about the guest from this week:

Guest: Mariano Garcia-Valiño, Founder and CEO at Axenya

Website: axenya.com