From growing up around the world to building global products, Jon Carr Harris shares how adaptability, problem-solving, and patience shaped his path as a founder — and what it really takes to scale a startup like Cred.
Jon Carr-Harris is the Founder and CEO of CRED—an AI-powered platform enabling data-driven decisions with real-time external signals. Since its founding in 2023, CRED uncovers consumer and business behavior to drive profitability for enterprises such as the Golden State Warriors, UTA, and the PGA. With 10+ years as an entrepreneur and product innovator, Jon specializes in the application of predictive analytics, machine learning, and behavioral design. Previously, Jon founded Swish Labs, leading corporate solutions for Prudential, Nasdaq, Gatorade, and HSBC, and was a founding member of a financial exchange launched in 2018. Widely recognized as an expert in startup investment and marketplace platforms, Jon has also advised companies such as Airbnb, Khan Academy, and Kik to enhance their product strategy and development.
Feeling drained or at a crossroads? Join Sean Erickson as he discusses the importance of sabbaticals, self-awareness, and building community to find fulfillment and embrace new directions in your life and career.
On this episode of the Uncharted podcast, we're joined by Phil Carr, a seasoned tech entrepreneur. Phil dives into his journey from building and exiting the successful fitness platform, My PT Hub, to his current venture, Upzelo. He shares invaluable insights on his strategic pivot from SaaS retention to e-commerce loyalty, the unique challenges of being a second-time founder, and his take on AI's evolving role in the tech landscape. Tune in for candid lessons on self-awareness, raising capital, and navigating market shifts.
How do you build partnerships that actually drive revenue—not just relationships? In this episode, Billy Robbins joins to break down the evolution of partnerships, the rise of marketplaces like AWS, and how to create real value through strategic collaboration. Whether you're building your first BD function or scaling with hyperscalers, this one’s packed with hard-earned insight.
In this candid and heartfelt episode, we dive deep into a personal journey of resilience, growth, and authentic connection. Poya shares their experience growing up as an immigrant in America, navigating career transitions from politics to sales, and building a successful consulting practice based on genuine relationships. They reveal how childhood insecurities transformed into a passion for empowering others, the importance of learning through experience, and why they now measure success by happiness rather than income. From overcoming professional setbacks to finding purpose in helping others succeed, this conversation explores how vulnerability and loyalty have shaped their approach to business and life. Discover powerful insights about perseverance, authentic leadership, and why sometimes the best path forward is simply to "step the fricking up" when facing life's challenges.
Amir Orad shares how he scaled three companies to over $150M, navigated crises like 9/11 and the financial crash, and built winning teams through reinvention, resilience, and relentless focus. A masterclass in scaling SaaS through chaos.
Poya and Robby interview Mark Selcow, a General Partner at Costanoa Ventures, where he is focused on investing in the next generation of great enterprise technology companies. Prior to joining Costanoa, Mark was a serial entrepreneur and operator, who led organizations in the enterprise software and consumer Internet sectors. He co-founded and served as President of two companies. The first, BabyCenter, was a pioneer in the consumer Internet and grew to become a leader in the online parenting market. BabyCenter was sold to Johnson and Johnson in 2001. The second, Merced Systems, became the dominant provider of Performance Management software for large Customer Service functions. It was an innovator in combining operating data, complex derived metrics, and human factors, such as coaching, incentives, and games to achieve improvements in employee performance serving customers. Merced grew profitability from its first year of shipped product and was sold to NICE Systems in 2012.
Connect with Mark:
In this episode of Uncharted, host Poya shares invaluable insights from his recent keynote at SaaStanak conference in Croatia. Drawing from his personal journey as an immigrant and his experience helping European startups succeed in the US, Poya breaks down the most common pitfalls founders face when expanding internationally. From the importance of founders owning the sales process to building genuine relationships instead of transactional ones, this episode delivers practical advice on how to navigate the American business landscape. Whether you're considering US expansion or simply looking to improve your sales approach, you'll learn why being opinionated matters, how to add value in follow-ups, and why documentation is critical for scaling success. Don't miss these battle-tested strategies from someone who has helped multiple companies achieve their American dream.
Our speaker this week is Jonathan Festejo. He is the CEO and co-founder of Salesbricks, where he is dedicated to making software easier to buy. He leads the company’s vision, strategy, and long-term growth. With firsthand experience in the challenges of selling software in today’s digital world, Jonathan is focused on making software more accessible through simple, click-to-purchase solutions. Before founding Salesbricks, he managed go-to-market operations at several companies backed by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and oversaw more than $2 billion in software sales contracts.
Arthur Bigeard shares his journey from a passion project to a thriving business, turning a side hustle into a full-time venture. He discusses the long-term mindset behind building scalable software, the lessons learned from working at Morgan Stanley, and the strategic decisions that helped shape g.v, a graph database client. Tune in for insights on entrepreneurship, tech evolution, and making the leap into the unknown!
About our speaker:
Arthur Bigeard is the founder at gdotv, a universal, plug-and-play graph database client to simplify & accelerate the day-to-day tasks of graph database users. He started this project following a 10 years long cyber security career, specialising in Identity & Access Management and cryptographic solutions.
In this episode of The Uncharted Podcast, host Poya Osgouei sits down with Lucas Lovell, VP of Product at Paddle, to discuss his journey from law school to founding a SaaS company and ultimately transitioning into a leadership role at a fast-growing scale-up. Lucas shares insights on navigating the shift from founder to operator, the value of cross-functional relationships, and the importance of customer empathy in product development. He also offers valuable advice for early-career professionals on prioritizing learning and leveraging strengths to create a lasting impact.
Tune in for a deep dive into leadership, adaptability, and growth in the tech world!
This week's guest is Ryan Fox-Tyler who is currently building Hypermode, an AI development platform that makes it easy to build intelligent apps and knowledge graphs. Prior, he led product at Astronomer (the data orchestration company) and spent a decade in various roles at Manulife/John Hancock.
In this episode ofUncharted, we explore the power of collaboration in sales and leadership. Our guest shares insights on how a strong partnership mindset—rather than a zero-sum approach—can drive bigger wins, foster trust, and create lasting professional relationships. From splitting deals to scaling success, we discuss the key ingredients that make teamwork thrive and how these lessons apply to leadership, decision-making, and career growth. Tune in for stories of mutual support, business insights, and advice on building relationships that stand the test of time.
Poya Osgouei, the founder of Event Sponsors, shares insights on the evolution of B2B tech events, the art of relationship building, and how to create valuable networking experiences.
From his journey starting at Oracle to becoming an events expert, Poya discusses the shift toward niche communities, measuring event ROI, and strategies for meaningful professional connections.
This episode of the Uncharted podcast features Phil Carr, a tech entrepreneur discussing his journey from founding and exiting My PT Hub (a successful B2B2C fitness platform) to his current venture, Upzelo. Phil shares insights about his recent pivot from a SaaS retention product to an e-commerce loyalty platform, discussing the challenges of second-time entrepreneurship, knowing when to pivot, and his perspective on AI's impact on technology. The conversation covers valuable lessons about self-awareness in entrepreneurship, raising capital, and adapting to changing market conditions.
This episode is brought to you by Netsuite, learn more at Netsuite.com
In this episode of Uncharted, Poya kicks off 2025 with an insightful conversation with Haroon, CEO of Autoblocks AI, a company pioneering tools to ensure the safe deployment of AI. Haroon shares his journey from being an ML engineer to co-founding Autoblocks, highlighting his passion for building trust in AI systems. The discussion explores the AI industry's rapid evolution, the challenges startups face in standing out, and the strategic importance of solving immediate customer pain points. Tune in to hear Haroon's grounded perspective on navigating the hype around AI, his thoughts on the battle between AI-native startups and industry incumbents, and advice for those entering the space.
About our guest:
Haroon is the Co-Founder & CEO at Autoblocks AI, one of the first-ever AI evaluation platforms.
He is also the host of the Building With AI podcast, where he interviews & distills best practices from top AI product teams at companies like OpenAI, Intercom, and Retool.
Haroon previously founded one of the top AI literacy nonprofits in the US, AI For Anyone, and is passionate about democratizing knowledge about AI.
Brought to you with support from Netsuite. Learn more at Netsuite.com/scale
Today's guest is Firaas Rashid, CEO and Founder of Hook. Hook is the B2B SaaS platform focused on predictable revenue growth from existing customers. Backed by Lightspeed and LocalGlobe, Hook is revolutionising the way companies forecast their revenue growth using product usage and customer data. He is passionate about changing the way Customer Success is run and building the leading workplace for ambitious people who want to be part of a team. Before founding Hook, Firaas was CTO and Head of Customer Success (EMEA) at AppDynamics, scaling from $170m to $550m Annual Recurring Revenue in 2 years. He led a rapid journey of rebuilding Customer Success to focus on data-driven prioritisation and scale. Prior to that he was a Director of IT at Credit Suisse.
Beyond his role, Firaas finds joy in travel, exploring new restaurants, and even taking to the skies.
This episode is brought to you with support from Oracle Netsuite. Learn more at Netsuite.com/scale
This episode of Uncharted, Poya sits down with Dean Shu, founder and CEO of Arphie (https://www.arphie.ai), an AI-driven platform that accelerates RFP and questionnaire responses. Dean shares his journey from software consulting and investing to scaling startups like Scale AI, where he learned the skills that prepared him for entrepreneurship. He discusses how personal pain points and deep market research inspired him to become a founder, as well as shares his approach to founder-led sales, building customer trust, and differentiating in a crowded AI market. Dean emphasizes the importance of choosing the right co-founder, setting realistic expectations, and staying outcome-focused. Tune in for insights on navigating startup challenges and lessons from Dean’s entrepreneurial path.
About our Guest: Dean Shu is the CEO and Co-Founder of Arphie (https://www.arphie.ai), a platform that streamlines the process of responding to tedious requests for proposal (RFPs), security questionnaires, and more. Arphie was born out of his prior experience in responding to these RFPs at Scale AI, where he was the General Manager of a software business unit.
Prior to Scale AI, Dean invested in B2B software companies at Insight Partners, a $90B fund based in New York, and served as a consultant to tech companies at McKinsey & Company. Dean graduated from Harvard University, where he met his Arphie co-founder Michael Chen. When he's not building Arphie, Dean spends time with his wife and their Samoyed puppy.
This week's episode features Ashley Montgomery, the CEO of Montgomery Entertainment, a boutique event production agency with over 20 years of experience creating unforgettable moments across the globe. Ashley shares her approach to selecting clients, the key ingredients for successful collaborations, and why trust is at the heart of her work.
Ashley's stories inspire and offer valuable lessons in leadership and integrity. Plus, she opens up about her annual 25 Days of Giving initiative, where she’s bringing holiday cheer through community partnerships and exciting giveaways.
Tune in for a conversation filled with actionable insights, heartwarming stories, and the spirit of giving. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, event enthusiast, or just looking for a dose of inspiration, this episode is for you!
Chris Gannon is the Founder of Captivate Talent, a recruiting firm specializing in hiring top-tier go to market talent. In this episode, Chris dives into the importance of culture, importance of healthy decisions and the value of bringing authenticity to business. Genuine, insightful, and refreshingly no-nonsense, Chris is a leader who truly walks the talk.
This episode is brought to you with support from Oracle Netsuite. Learn more at netsuite.com/scale that is NetSuite dot com slash SCALE