CV Podcast

Welcome to the Cowles Ventures Podcast, the best podcast to learn about entrepreneurship and starting your own business!

CV Podcast is a business podcast hosted by Blake Gibson, with 41 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Blake Gibson hosts CV Podcast, a business show with 41 episodes published.

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  CV Podcast

  AI Coding Is Getting Expensive. This Spokane Startup Is Fixing It | Code Lexica

  Sep 28, 202651 min

  Why does your AI coding bill jump 5X overnight? Code Lexica co-founders Carter Bastian and Tristan Rees explain the hidden economics of AI coding tools like Claude Code, Codex and Cursor, and how their Spokane startup pivoted from codebase intelligence to cutting AI coding costs.On Episode 43 of the Cowles Ventures Podcast, Blake Gibson sits down with Carter and Tristan to unpack how a platform built to help engineers understand massive codebases turned into a tool that tracks and reduces runaway AI token spend for engineering teams.In this episode: How Carter started building Code Lexica right after GPT-3.5 launched, and met Tristan at a Spokane AI meetup Why their first product, a tool for understanding any codebase, wasn't a painful enough problem to sell The 3 things they got wrong about the AI coding market: how fast the tools improved, how fast adoption happened, and how much trust teams now give AI agents Why an Anthropic bill can jump 5X once a team crosses roughly 30 engineers and moves to enterprise pricing How feeding AI coding agents the right code context cuts both errors and token costs Why stealth mode is a mistake and shipping an imperfect product wins in the AI age Jevons paradox and whether AI will shrink engineering teams or create more demand for code Their long-term vision: a control plane for how companies govern AI coding tools across the whole org If you're an engineering leader, founder, or developer trying to understand AI coding costs, AI adoption, or building a SaaS startup outside Silicon Valley, this one is packed with practical takeaways.CHAPTERS 0:00 Cold open: why your AI bill can 5X overnight 0:43 Meet Carter Bastian and Tristan Rees of Code Lexica 2:06 Building Code Lexica after GPT-3.5 3:50 Finding a co-founder at a Spokane AI event 5:32 Big company vs startup: career advice for engineers 6:45 What is codebase understanding? 9:21 Why the first product wasn't a hair-on-fire problem 11:22 3 things they got wrong about the AI coding market 13:09 AI adoption trends and the governance problem 14:06 The pivot to tracking and cutting AI coding spend 14:55 The two mandates every engineering leader gets 16:07 How code context cuts AI errors and token costs 18:43 Built for developers: zero-friction setup 19:35 Why your Anthropic bill jumps 5X at 30 engineers 20:28 Becoming the control plane for AI coding 21:54 Who Code Lexica sells to, from small teams to enterprise 24:53 Model price hikes and the end of AI subsidies 26:08 What drives AI prices up: regulation, energy and compute 27:44 Will AI shrink engineering teams? 30:00 Jevons paradox and the future demand for code 31:57 Non-technical founders building real software 33:11 Why stealth mode is a bad idea for startups 35:24 Ship an imperfect product, fast 37:58 Building an AI-first team 40:16 Finding message-market fit 42:54 "You'll get tired of your messaging first" 44:48 Where Code Lexica is headed next 48:21 Advice for founders: use 10X more AI 49:15 Hot take: why founders need side projects 50:17 Wrap-upLearn more about Code Lexica: https://app.codelexica.com/ Watch Carter's first appearance on Episode 1: • From Zero to Oversubscribed | How Code Lex... Subscribe for more conversations with founders, investors and operators building companies in Spokane and the Inland Northwest. #AI #AICoding #Startups #SoftwareEngineering #Spokane

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  CV Podcast

  Their First AI Startup Flopped. Then They Found a Problem Worth Millions | Code Lexica

  Sep 26, 202650 min

  In this episode of the Cowles Ventures Podcast, Blake sits down with Carter and Tristan, co-founders of Code Lexica, to break down how a code-understanding platform built to help engineers navigate massive codebases pivoted into helping companies track and cut their runaway AI coding spend. We talk about: How Carter started building Code Lexica back in 2022, right after GPT-3.5 came out, and met Tristan at a Spokane AI event a year later Why their original product, a chatbot for understanding any codebase, wasn't solving a painful enough problem The three things they underestimated about the market: how fast AI coding tools improved, how fast adoption happened, and how much trust teams started giving AI agents Why a company's Anthropic bill can jump 5X overnight the moment they cross about 30 engineers and get forced onto enterprise pricing How injecting the right code context into an AI agent's prompt cuts both errors and token costs at the same time Why they see their product becoming the long-term control plane for how companies govern AI coding tools across the whole org Carter and Tristan share tactical insight into building and pivoting an AI startup, the economics of enterprise AI pricing, and where AI coding tools are headed as subsidies dry up. If you're interested in AI, software engineering, startups, SaaS, or building a company in Spokane, this conversation is packed with practical insights. Subscribe for more conversations with founders, investors, and operators building the next generation of companies. #AI #startups #softwareengineering #SaaS #Spokane #podcast #entrepreneurship #techstartup

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  CV Podcast

  Why Data Centers and Labs Have the Same Energy Problem, and How to Fix Both | James Connelly

  Sep 17, 202643 min

  In this episode of the Cowles Ventures Podcast, Blake sits down with James Connelly, CEO of My Green Lab, to break down why laboratories are some of the most energy intensive spaces in the world, more than data centers by some measures, and how his company built a certification standard now used by 43 of the top 50 biotech and pharma companies. We talk about: - Why a single fume hood can use as much energy as three American homes, and an ultra-low temperature freezer as much as two - The study finding that 2.2% of global plastic waste comes from academic research alone - Why My Green Lab split into a nonprofit and a for-profit subsidiary in 2023, and how that structure accelerated its mission instead of compromising it - How AstraZeneca's labs saw a 5X return on investment and a real jump in employee engagement scores after certifying - Why the certification intentionally avoided being the easiest or cheapest option, and chose rigor instead - Operating in 5,500 labs across 62 countries, and where the next wave of growth is coming from - Where AI genuinely helps scale sustainability audits, and the harder conversation about data center efficiency itself James shares tactical insight into building a nonprofit-for-profit hybrid, scaling a certification standard globally, and making corporate sustainability goals tangible for the people actually doing the work. If you're interested in sustainability, biotech, healthcare, entrepreneurship, or building a company with global reach out of Spokane, this conversation is packed with practical insights. Subscribe for more conversations with founders, investors, and operators building the next generation of companies. #sustainability #biotech #healthcare #climate #entrepreneurship #Spokane #podcast #startups

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  CV Podcast

  Nurse Turnover Costs $60,000 a Head. This Spokane Company Built the Fix

  Sep 9, 202657 min

  In this episode of the Cowles Ventures Podcast, Blake sits down with David Heath, founder of Lighthouse, to break down why hospitals still run nurse staffing off a shared Excel spreadsheet with 12 tabs, why turnover costs a hospital about $60,000 per nurse, and how AI is finally starting to fix a system that's stayed broken because too many vested interests benefit from it staying that way. We talk about: • Why the US spends double per capita on healthcare compared to any other nation and still gets worse outcomes • How hospitals hire travel nurses 13 weeks in advance with almost no way to predict actual demand • The staffing grid problem, why an accounting tool built for spreadsheets became the backbone of nurse scheduling nationwide • Why Lighthouse 1.0, "Uber for nurses," failed and what building 2.0 with an industry insider taught them • How predictive modeling using weather, air quality, and news events forecasts ED volume up to 12 months out • Why meal and break compliance violations have cost Washington hospitals millions, and how software closes that gap • Why no country's healthcare model gets copied, and how politics keeps the US system from being fixed David shares tactical insight into healthcare operations, workforce technology, AI-driven forecasting, and building a company that solves a problem hospitals didn't know how to explain, let alone fix. If you're interested in healthcare technology, AI, workforce management, hospital operations, or building a company in Spokane, this conversation is packed with practical insights. Subscribe for more conversations with founders, investors, and operators building the next generation of companies.

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  CV Podcast

  A Signature Page Swap Cost Him His Company. Then He Got Stage Four Cancer | Jacob Godak

  Aug 27, 202657 min

  In this episode of the Cowles Ventures Podcast, Blake sits down with Jacob Godak, founder of Apisem, to break down how a prosthetics and orthotics clinician built a device out of two cut-up Nordic Tracks and a mountain bike to get a double amputee patient walking again, and how a business partner used a swapped signature page to remove him from the company he invented. We talk about: How Primus Excursio was built to help a patient who lost both legs to diabetes get moving again Why the device hits 98% voluntary muscle activation, more than a rowing machine, with zero impact Getting frozen out of his own company after a business partner altered the operating agreement following their first trade show The backyard study with 20 seniors that proved the concept worked beyond just amputees and elite athletes Moving from Montana back to Idaho, working construction, and rebuilding after losing the business Being diagnosed with stage four colon cancer and what that changed about how he approaches building again Jacob shares tactical insight into medical device development, patient care, protecting your IP in a business partnership, and rebuilding after losing everything to a bad deal. If you're interested in medical devices, entrepreneurship, prosthetics and orthotics, product development, or building a company in the Inland Northwest, this conversation is packed with practical insights. Subscribe for more conversations with founders, investors, and operators building the next generation of companies.

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