In this episode of The Orita Podcast, Aaron Schwartz sits down with Ben Parr—Mashable alum, best‑selling author of Captivology, co‑founder of Octane AI, and now investor at Theory Forge—for a founder‑to‑founder reality check on how commerce tech is moving (hint: faster than your Monday stand‑up).
Together, they unpack:
The $$$ unsubscribe—how to show the C‑suite that every send is either compounding value…or torching it
Zero‑party data, real‑party money—how quizzes became Octane AI’s unfair advantage
Investor X‑ray vision—the scoring prompts Ben runs through GPT‑4o before wiring a pre‑seed check
Founders, don’t die—Ben’s surprisingly simple rule for surviving platform cliffs, cash crunches, and chatbot scandals
Building 10M ARR in a weekend—and other tales from the AI frontier you can’t ignore
If you’re a DTC operator, tech founder, or anyone still calling ChatGPT “the robot,” this convo will either supercharge your roadmap or light it on fire. Either way, time to move.
👥 Meet the guest
Ben Parr, Co-founder at Octane AI
Hosted by Aaron Schwartz, Co-founder & Co-CEO at Orita.ai
🎧 Chapters
[03:55] Octane AI glow‑up: from chatbots to checkout mind‑readers
[07:48] Betting on silicon brains: how I pick AI winners
[12:37] Let the algorithms argue—then I sign the check
[16:24] Brand flex: real‑world AI wins you can steal
[20:27] Tomorrow’s checkout: voice, vision, zero‑friction everything
[24:18] Founder survival kit: grit, group chat, radical transparency
[27:51] Parting shot: build with empathy or get automated
🌐 Check out Orita.ai for more episodes of The Orita Podcast—where we sit down with the most interesting operators, marketers, and founders in e-commerce to talk about what’s working right now. Hosted by the Orita team. Orita uses machine learning to help brands send smarter, more profitable marketing—by figuring out who actually wants to hear from you and when.
🚀 Get your free email audit from Orita – turn segments into superpowers: https://orita.ai
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