The AI Revolution Show

The rules of B2B software are being rewritten. The AI platform shift isn't coming — it's here. And the founders who understand it earliest will build the companies that define the next decade. The AI Revolution Show is the intelligence podcast for B2B software founders navigating that shift. Every episode, host Alex Theuma sits down in person with the founders living through it — the SaaS operators rebuilding their businesses for the AI era, and the AI-native builders who never looked back. No PR polish. No rehearsed talking points. Just honest, field-level conversations about what's actually working, what's breaking, and where software goes from here. Brought to you by Shift AI — the conference and community for founders building software in the AI era. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.

The AI Revolution Show is a business podcast hosted by Alex Theuma / Shift AI, with 20 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Alex Theuma / Shift AI hosts The AI Revolution Show, a business show with 20 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.

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  Episode #20

  The Bootstrap Founder's Bet on Agentic Support

  Oct 1, 202630 min

  What do you do when your bootstrapped business hits $5M ARR but stops acquiring new customers entirely? Alex Turnbull didn't wait for the answer. He shut it down and started over. Twice. Host Alex Theuma speaks with Alex Turnbull, CEO of Helply, formerly CEO of Groove for 15 years. With 100 companies already committed with deposits and a $165K MRR pipeline before launch, Turnbull explains why he killed two products to build one agentic-first platform, no seats, no legacy baggage. In this episode, we explore: (00:41) Why Groove became a textbook NRR zombie at $5M ARR (03:21) The decision to bolt AI onto Groove and why it failed (08:13) Helply V1 reaches $1M ARR in 12 months then gets shut down (11:01) Why owning proprietary data is the real moat in agentic support (15:08) How Helply's ICP and ARPA shifted dramatically from Groove (19:20) The no-seat pricing model and why incumbents cannot copy it (23:04) Turnbull's honest warning to legacy SaaS founders still on the fence (28:19) How vaporware at SaaStr AI Conf produced 125 qualified demos The AI Revolution Show is the intelligence podcast for B2B software founders navigating the platform shift, the founders building through it, and the founders already on the other side. Hosted by Alex Theuma, founder of Shift AI Events. Subscribe so you don't miss the next episode. This episode is brought to you by Leapsome. For more information, visit Leapsome: https://hubs.li/Q04xm8f_0 .

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  Episode #19

  Bolt-On AI Doesn't Work. Eléonore Crespo, Co-CEO of Pigment, on Why You Have to Rebuild from Scratch

  Sep 24, 202634 min

  Finance teams at Anthropic, Coca-Cola, and Unilever have stopped using spreadsheets entirely. Is your business planning keeping pace with the speed of the market, or are you running a Formula 1 race with a bicycle? Alex Theuma sits down with Eléonore Crespo, co-CEO and co-founder of Pigment, the AI performance management platform that has doubled revenue for three consecutive years and recently crossed $100M ARR. Eleanor shares why bolt-on AI is a losing strategy, how Pigment is cutting enterprise implementation from nine months to 20 days, and what it actually takes to build and defend a moat in the age of agents. In this episode, we explore: (02:06) Why Eleanor keeps engineering in Europe and sales in the US (04:09) Crossing $100M ARR with three straight years of revenue doubling (08:11) Why large enterprises cannot just run their business on Claude (10:23) How Pigment pivoted from pre-AI infrastructure to agentic workflows (12:05) Eleanor's three rules: AI-native thinking, moat-building, and speed (22:50) Why two co-CEOs works, and how they handle opposing visions (27:31) Launching a free trial inside an enterprise sales motion (33:10) What people dangerously underestimate about execution and great teams The AI Revolution Show is the intelligence podcast for B2B software founders navigating the platform shift, the founders building through it, and the founders already on the other side. Hosted by Alex Theuma, founder of Shift AI Events. Subscribe so you don't miss the next episode. This episode is brought to you by Leapsome. For more information, visit Leapsome: https://hubs.li/Q04xm8f_0 .

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  Episode #18

  AI Exposed the Problems SaaS Already Had: Jacco van der Kooij on What's Coming in 2027

  Sep 18, 202627 min

  AI didn't break SaaS. It just made the cracks impossible to ignore. And according to Jacco van der Kooij, the AI industry is now sprinting toward the exact same cliff edge, only faster. Alex Theuma sits down with Jacco van der Kooij, founder of Winning by Design and advisor to companies including Canva, SpaceX, and Boston Dynamics. They cover why inbound-dependent growth models are a ticking clock, where AI is being wasted on old processes, and why human-to-human connection is still the dominant force in sales. In this episode, we explore: (01:32) Jacco on what excites and scares him about AI right now (03:29) Why AI exposed SaaS problems rather than causing them (05:09) Using AI to eliminate your top six business constraints (06:13) The Ferrari-as-lawnmower mistake most founders are making (17:57) High-touch vs. high-volume sales: where humans still win (21:27) Why applying AI to old processes changes nothing (22:11) The inbound dependency trap, and why AI companies are repeating it (23:41) What Jacco expects to learn, not just teach, at Shift AI Europe The AI Revolution Show is the intelligence podcast for B2B software founders navigating the platform shift, the founders building through it, and the founders already on the other side. Hosted by Alex Theuma, founder of Shift AI Events. Subscribe so you don't miss the next episode.

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  Episode #17

  St John Dalgleish on Scaling What Works: Perlon AI's Case Against Plug-and-Play AI SDRs

  Sep 11, 202639 min

  Alex Theuma sits down with St John Dalgleish, CEO of Perlon AI, to talk about what actually separates a working AI GTM motion from a wasted one. They cover why ownership matters more than tooling, where the human salesperson still wins, and why AI cold callers are a brand risk few founders are willing to take. In this episode, we explore: (01:36) Why most companies are still failing with AI SDRs (05:29) The ownership problem inside sales teams using AI (08:02) How Perlon AI qualifies customers who are actually ready (09:57) From consulting spinout to seven-figure ARR product (12:16) Where the human SDR still beats automation every time (14:34) St John on why AI cold callers are a brand liability (19:23) Dogfooding at scale: 70% of pipeline from their own tool (22:07) The AI backlash driving a comeback for face-to-face events (31:35) Three things Perlan AI actually differentiates on in a crowded market The AI Revolution Show is the intelligence podcast for B2B software founders navigating the platform shift, the founders building through it, and the founders already on the other side. Hosted by Alex Theuma, founder of Shift AI Events. Subscribe so you don't miss the next episode.

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  Episode #16

  Why Pricing Is a Leaky Bucket: Krzysztof Szyszkiewicz on the Mistake That Kills SaaS Companies Slowly

  Sep 4, 202634 min

  Most SaaS founders touch pricing once every two or three years. In the AI era, that might be the single most expensive decision they never consciously make. Krzysztof Szyszkiewicz, founder of Valueships and former McKinsey pricing specialist, has run surveys across 40 to 50 companies a year and the data is clear: the noise is wrong, and moving to pure usage-based pricing without a process behind it can do serious damage. Host Alex Theuma talks with Krzysztof about why 95% of Valueships engagements end with a price increase, how to identify the right value metric before changing anything, and what separates a pricing transformation from a pricing disaster. If you suspect your pricing is wrong for the AI era, this episode tells you where to start. In this episode, we explore: (02:26) The single most expensive pricing mistake SaaS founders repeat (05:23) What Valueships does and why Krzysztof built it (08:52) What AI is actually doing to SaaS pricing models right now (10:57) Why a 180-degree shift to usage-based pricing backfires (13:35) How to identify the value metric worth charging for (21:31) The Lovable example: changing pricing 12 times in one year (24:06) What AI-native founders should do differently from day one (32:49) Krzysztof's one action for founders who suspect their pricing is wrong The AI Revolution Show is the intelligence podcast for B2B software founders navigating the platform shift, the founders building through it, and the founders already on the other side. Hosted by Alex Theuma, founder of Shift AI Events. Subscribe so you don't miss the next episode.

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