Episodes

  • Corey Ferengul on the 6 CEO Personas from Startup to $500M in Revenue

    Corey Ferengul on the 6 CEO Personas from Startup to $500M in Revenue
    Apr 22 2026
    Aperiam Partner Corey Ferengul joins Eric Franchi and Joe Zappa to break down the six CEO archetypes — sales, product, CTO, visionary, operator, and CFO — and how each one shows up at different stages of a company’s growth. They walk through how these personas evolve from scrappy startup mode to scaled organizations, where they succeed, where they struggle, and when new leadership layers need to come in. They also discuss the tension between vision and execution, why certain archetypes fade or become liabilities over time, and what it takes to build a balanced leadership team.
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    40 mins
  • Consumable CEO Mark Levin on Bootstrapping a Big Audio Business

    Consumable CEO Mark Levin on Bootstrapping a Big Audio Business
    Apr 14 2026
    Consumable CEO Mark Levin joins Eric Franchi and Joe Zappa to share the founding story behind his audio advertising company and why he chose to bootstrap in an industry dominated by venture-backed players. They discuss what it means to make audio “addressable everywhere,” why the channel has struggled to meet its potential in the past, and how advertisers are reacting. Mark also breaks down how he built the business from the ground up, including early customer acquisition and go-to-market evolution. Finally, they explore the tradeoffs of bootstrapping, advice for founders considering that path, and what the future of audio looks like as a performance channel.
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    29 mins
  • Eric Interviews Joe: The Sharp Pen Story and CEO Evangelism

    Eric Interviews Joe: The Sharp Pen Story and CEO Evangelism
    Apr 8 2026
    Eric Franchi turns the tables and interviews co-host Joe Zappa on the founding story of Sharp Pen, how the agency evolved into a CEO evangelism machine, and what’s broken about traditional PR that they set out to fix. They dig into the company's product-market fit moment, what didn’t work early on, the biggest client wins and failures, and how Joe gets executives to say things they’d never put in a press release. They also cover where Sharp Pen goes next and what advice Joe has for adtech CEOs looking to build a voice in a noisy market.
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    34 mins
  • Marketecture CEO Jeremy Bloom on the New Adtech Media

    Marketecture CEO Jeremy Bloom on the New Adtech Media
    Apr 1 2026
    Marketecture CEO Jeremy Bloom joins Eric Franchi and Joe Zappa to discuss why he left the operating side of adtech to build a media company and what’s driving the shift toward founder- and practitioner-led media. They break down what traditional coverage gets wrong, the opportunities and challenges of operator-driven content, and Marketecture’s strategy behind acquiring properties like AdTechGod and AdLand. Jeremy also weighs in on what makes certain creators break through and how founders should navigate the new media landscape.
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    47 mins
  • Does the SaaSpocalypse Apply to Adtech? With Viant’s Tim and Chris Vanderhook

    Does the SaaSpocalypse Apply to Adtech? With Viant’s Tim and Chris Vanderhook
    Mar 24 2026
    SaaS stocks are being routed in the public markets, and onlookers are wondering whether the same applies to adtech. In essence, the thinking goes, "Can't SaaS customers just vibe-code an alternative in-house and save millions on enterprise software?" Viant co-founders Chris and Tim Vanderhook explain the thinking behind the SaaSpocalypse, whether it applies to adtech, how investors should respond, and what entrepreneurs need to do to drive, not be overcome by, innovation. Plus, Eric and Joe share an announcement.
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    49 mins
  • Recast CEO Michael Kaminsky on Attribution Myths and Analytics Entrepreneurship

    Recast CEO Michael Kaminsky on Attribution Myths and Analytics Entrepreneurship
    Mar 18 2026
    Recast CEO Michael Kaminsky joins Eric Franchi and Joe Zappa to discuss why marketing analytics may be an even tougher business than adtech and the founding story behind Recast. They unpack the internal politics that shape how measurement tools are adopted, why upper-funnel channels are given a lack of credit, and what marketers still get wrong about attribution. Michael also explains why “interesting insights are worthless,” how CMOs and CFOs are increasingly collaborating on marketing budgets, and how AI is changing both the way he’s building the company and the future of marketing measurement.
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    38 mins
  • Graphed CEO Cody Schneider on an AI-First Approach to GTM

    Graphed CEO Cody Schneider on an AI-First Approach to GTM
    Mar 11 2026
    Graphed CEO Cody Schneider joins Eric Franchi and Joe Zappa to explain how he unleashed a fleet of AI agents on his company’s go-to-market efforts, including the automated outreach that landed him on this very podcast. They break down what parts of marketing and sales AI can realistically automate today, how non-technical founders can start building simple agents (like for podcast outreach), and the results Cody has seen so far. They also discuss the tradeoffs — from bot detection to authenticity concerns — and how leaders can build organizations that encourage experimentation instead of shutting it down.
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    47 mins
  • How We Use AI Daily

    How We Use AI Daily
    Mar 4 2026
    Eric Franchi and Joe Zappa break down how they actually use AI every day across creative work, CEO-level strategy and hiring, investing analysis, and business development, then react to Block laying off 4,000 employees in the name of AI and what that signals about how organizations will need to adapt. Finally, they tackle the cultural backlash to AI and discuss past cycles that mirror the present.
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    40 mins