Building Great Tech

Growing, scaling, and selling tech businesses. Building Great Tech takes you inside the product decisions that drive growth, protect margins, and make tech companies worth buying. What's killing your conversion. Why your customers churn. Where the real product value sits before, during, and after a deal. Hosted by Simon Hook & Anastasija Krysa. Two product value creation specialists behind £41M and $87M exits, a 156% conversion increase, and a 93% retention uplift. Expert interviews with PE investors, CEOs, founders, and operators. Real case studies. Practical playbooks for growing, scaling, and selling tech businesses.

Building Great Tech is a technology podcast hosted by Simon Hook & Anastasija Krysa, with 40 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Simon Hook & Anastasija Krysa hosts Building Great Tech, a technology show with 40 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

• 

  Building Great Tech

  The AI Laws Every Tech Business needs to know in 2026 with Funke Abimbola

  Jul 15, 202658 min

  In this week's episode, Simon and Anastasija talk with Funke Abimbola MBE, AI Governance Expert and Chief Legal Officer, about AI law and how it impacts UK businesses. If you are a UK based business founder you may not be fully aware of the local or international law that will either impact you now or as you grow. Did you know that the UK does not have any official single bill or legislation on AI regulation? ABOUT FUNKE: My name is Funke Abimbola and I am a multi-award winning  Corporate Lawyer, C-suite Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Leader, Healthcare executive, BBC media commentator, Non Executive Director, Public Speaker and Podcast host.  Most importantly, I am a very proud mother to an exceptional son who is a software engineer. Funke's linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/funkeabimbola/ Funke's personal website - https://funkeabimbola.com/ BUILDING GREAT TECH WEBSITE ⁠⁠⁠http://BuildingGreatTech.com/⁠⁠⁠ YOUTUBE ⁠⁠⁠https://youtube.com/@buildinggreattech?si=PAPXfpruiSx_Nqgt⁠⁠⁠ TIKTOK ⁠⁠⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@buildinggreattech?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc⁠⁠⁠ LINKEDIN ⁠⁠⁠https://uk.linkedin.com/company/building-great-tech⁠⁠⁠ INSTAGRAM ⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/buildinggreattech/⁠⁠⁠ FACEBOOK ⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/buildinggreattech/⁠

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  Building Great Tech

  From 0 to 9-Figure PE Exit - with Grzegorz Blazewicz, founder of SALESmanago

  Jun 24, 20261h 20m

  In this episode of Building Great Tech, Anastasija and Simon talk with Grzegorz Blazewicz, founder of SALESmanago. They talk about pressures facing the marketing industry amidst the AI revolution and how AI can be used as a tool to help target marketing campaigns more effectivelty. They also break down Grzegorz's jounrey from B2B to B2B and back again, and how he managed to get funding from two seperate PE firms, eventually resulting in a 9-figure exit! ABOUT GRZEGORZ An entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in marketing and management. Founded Salesmanago and as a CEO bootstrapped the company from EUR 0 - 20 mln ARR and led the company to EUR 9-digit exit. Prior to starting Salesmanago worked in marketing agencies in New York and London, was CMO of Comarch, one of the largest IT companies in Europe (2000-2006), and CEO of Interia, Poland’s 3rd largest Internet portal, quoted on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (2006-2008) which he managed to exit at EUR 100 mln valuation.Academic lecturer, startup mentor and author of the popular book “Marketing Automation. Towards Artificial Intelligence and Hyperpersonalization”. Finalist in the 2014 EY Entrepreneur of the Year award.Specializes in GTM Strategies, M&A, Product Development. GUEST LINKS Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/grzegorzblazewicz/ Book "Marketing Automation: Towards Artificial Intelligence and Hyper-personalization" - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Marketing-Automation-Artificial-Intelligence-Hyperpersonalization/dp/8301222220 SALESmanago - https://www.salesmanago.com/ BUILDING GREAT TECH WEBSITE ⁠http://BuildingGreatTech.com/⁠ YOUTUBE ⁠https://youtube.com/@buildinggreattech?si=PAPXfpruiSx_Nqgt⁠ TIKTOK ⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@buildinggreattech?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc⁠ LINKEDIN ⁠https://uk.linkedin.com/company/building-great-tech⁠ INSTAGRAM ⁠https://www.instagram.com/buildinggreattech/⁠ FACEBOOK ⁠https://www.facebook.com/buildinggreattech/⁠

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  Building Great Tech

  Why PE Bolt-Ons Lose Value After Close (And the Man Who Fixes That), with Thomas Varan

  Jun 10, 20261h 7m

  In this week's episode of Building Great Tech, Simon and Anastasija talk with Thomas Varan, a delivery leader for PE-backed software companies during post-acquisition integration. They talk about the key issues that affect acquisitions, why PE firms should think twice before adopting a bolt-on "buy and build" strategy, and how AI will redefine what it means to be agile in the software industry. ABOUT THOMAS: My career began on the phones — three years as a carrier sales account manager at Coyote Logistics, a company later acquired by UPS. That experience shaped everything I’ve done since: every engagement I run is ultimately about the customer’s outcome, not the internal process. From there I moved into business analysis, led teams of analysts and offshore developers, managed global implementations across three continents, and built an organization’s first structured delivery practice from zero. Each step added a layer — technical fluency, cross-functional leadership, the ability to operate at the intersection of business strategy and engineering execution. In 2018 I founded TV Consulting LLC and went independent. Since then I’ve worked inside PE-backed companies post-close — closing the gap between what diligence identifies and what actually gets fixed. Roadmap governance, sprint predictability, R&D metrics, board-level reporting. The work that turns engineering from a black box into a transparent, governed operation. Simple philosophy: make the framework work for your organization, not the other way around. GUEST LINKS: Website - https://thomasvaran.com/ Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomasvaran/ BUILDING GREAT TECH WEBSITE http://BuildingGreatTech.com/ YOUTUBE https://youtube.com/@buildinggreattech?si=PAPXfpruiSx_Nqgt APPLE https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/building-great-tech/id1839197191 SPOTIFY https://open.spotify.com/show/3SqTKzhVxqUHHjOlWy0dWF?si=da31b7b196564319 TIKTOK https://www.tiktok.com/@buildinggreattech?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc LINKEDIN https://uk.linkedin.com/company/building-great-tech INSTAGRAM https://www.instagram.com/buildinggreattech/ FACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/buildinggreattech/

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  Building Great Tech

  Winning the SaaSpocalypse: Lessons for SaaS Companies from Jim Milbery, Partner at ParkerGale

  Jun 3, 20261h 6mS0

  <p>In this episode of Building Great Tech, Simon and Anastasija talk with Jim Milbery, partner at ParkerGale. They discuss the evolving software markets, how AI and the SaaSpocalypse is changing what investors are looking for, and why founders now want AI in everything! ABOUT JIM: Jim has spent his entire career in technology, working with customers, founders and management teams. Prior to founding ParkerGale, he worked at Chicago Growth Partners and William Blair Capital Partners where he managed portfolio company operations and technology initiatives. Before starting in private equity, Jim held various technical, sales and strategy roles at Oracle...

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  Building Great Tech

  How AI Can 10x your sales team - with David Pratley Mc-Gill

  May 20, 20261h 2mS0

  <p>In this episode of Building Great Tech, Anastasija and Simon talk with David Pratley Mc-Gill, Client Solution Director, GTM & AI Labs at Salt. The episode explores how AI can empower sales teams to become more efficient. AI can conduct research for market outreach and even send emails on your behalf, but to what extent is AI actually harmful to the sales process? And could you replace your whole sales team with AI?</p> <p>ABOUT DAVID:</p> <p>My career has centred on building momentum where growth is being blocked. That has meant different things at different stages, from...

  ListenShow Notes

Recent guests on Building Great Tech. Study who booked and why before you pitch.

Based on semantic analysis of episode topics and host coverage, this show is a strong guest fit for executives in:

Industry fit is computed by PitchCentric using vector embeddings of the show's episode catalog.