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Listen "Building A $100M AI Company For Non Technical Founders: Steve Philips"
Episode Synopsis
Steve Phillips is the founder of Zappi - a consumer insight platform used by Pepsi, McDonald’s and Vodafone to test ideas before they launch.Zappi has raised over $170 million to transform market research from a slow, manual service into a scalable, automated product. What started as a simple idea has grown into one of the leading data-driven insight platforms in the world.In this episode, Steve shares how he built a tech company without being technical, the hard lessons from raising venture capital too early, and why he believes simplicity and culture beat complexity and control.As always, if you enjoy this episode, make sure to like and subscribe 🔔Chapters:(00:00) Intro(03:07) The idea that started with a bottle of wine(04:32) Turning a service into software(08:26) Building without being technical(10:10) Finding the right co-founder and merging companies(13:15) Early product decisions that created lasting value(15:23) Building culture and staying close to the team(18:07) Why simplicity scales(19:00) From services to product — and why margins matter(23:00) How AI agents are changing the insights industry(26:48) The painful mistakes: custom code, early investors and burnout(30:10) Raising capital - and what went wrong(33:36) Strategic investors and the VC treadmill(35:33) The difference between VC and PE(38:48) Bringing in a new CEO and finding your zone of genius(42:25) Can you build a business if you’re not “technical”?(43:48) Where restless ambition comes from(47:52) Building an ADHD app with his daughter(50:17) The AI revolution in product creation(55:01) From SaaS to Data-as-a-Service(56:34) Why big companies struggle to use AI(58:53) The next generation of founders(59:30) What it was all for⭐ Listener Suggestion – Software of the Week: https://riverside.fm/👍 Why subscribe?If you build products, lead teams, or care about scaling big ideas through tech, data and culture — this channel is for you.🔔 Tap the bell so YouTube tells you when new episodes drop 🔔#startups #AI #data #founders #marketresearch #SaaS
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