SaaS Founder Stories w/ David Brennan

SaaS Founder Stories w/ David Brennan

We invite successful SaaS founders to share their journey, challenges, and insights with our audience of fellow SaaS entrepreneurs.

Episodes

May 13, 2025 9 mins

Want the framework we used to build our custom AI coding agent?

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In this episode of SaaS Founder Stories, David Brennan shares how the team at Arkeo AI built a powerful custom AI coding agent—fully integrated with GitHub, LLMs, and their internal mono repo.


David walk's through:

    • Why off-the-shelf tools weren’t enough
    • How they architected the syste...
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    In this episode, David Brennan sits down with Nik Vassev, Co-Founder & CEO of Novobeing, to explore how a lean healthcare startup is using AI agents and virtual reality therapy to revolutionize patient recovery and scale faster than teams twice their size.

    Nik shares how Novobeing's clinically validated VR platform is improving outcomes for hospital patients—and how his team runs GTM, PR, content, and outbound sales using a ...

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    In this episode of SaaS Founder Stories, I talk with Matt Verlaque, co-founder and CEO of Precision, about what it looks like to actually run your company with AI — not just use it on the side.

    Matt’s team runs sales follow-up with Grain and GPT. They write code with Cursor and OpenCommit. Their lead magnet is a custom GPT, not a PDF. And every team member is expected to log how they used AI — every single day.

    KEY TAKEAWAYS
    → Pre...

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    In this episode of SaaS Founder Stories, I sit down with Spencer Dusebout, founder and CEO of Aidium, to break down the internal playbook behind one of the most AI-forward companies I’ve talked to.

    At Aidium, AI isn’t just a feature — it’s a rule: no department gets headcount until they’ve implemented AI. From support to QA, engineering to GTM, every team builds with tools like Cursor, ChatGPT, and Figma AI to move faster and operat...

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    In this episode of SaaS Founder Stories, I sit down with Jessie Shipman, founder and CEO of Fluincy, to unpack what it really looks like to build a SaaS company alone — and compete with funded teams by making AI her co-founder.

    Jessie’s not technical. She doesn’t have a sales team. And she hasn’t raised a dollar. But she’s built a working product, a repeatable GTM motion, and a lead machine — all by using AI tools like GitHub Copilo...

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    In this episode of SaaS Founder Stories, I sit down with Paul Culvenor, co-founder and CEO of Hevi, to talk about what it actually means to build an AI-native company — not just ship AI features.

    Hevi is rethinking how software companies operate: Cursor for dev, Gemini for meeting summaries, GPT for strategy, and AI workflows embedded into marketing and finance. From prototyping to board planning, AI isn’t just helping — it’s doing ...

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    In this episode of SaaS Founder Stories, I talk with Francis Brero, co-founder and CPO of MadKudu, about what it really looks like to build an AI-native company — one where LLMs aren’t just powering the product, but actively shaping how the team works, writes, builds, and ships.

    From switching to Cursor as their coding assistant, to writing documentation for machines instead of humans, MadKudu is running fast, lean, and deeply AI-dr...

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    In this episode of SaaS Founder Stories, I talk with Mohit Garg, co-founder and CEO of Oloid, about what actually changes once you find product-market fit. Hint: it’s not the mission — it’s the team.

    Oloid’s early team was driven by belief. But after PMF and a major capital raise, the company needed structure, operators, and process — and that meant rethinking everything from org design to how you communicate with the earliest belie...

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    >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠David Brennan⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

    >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠Arkeo AI⁠, SaaS Copilot

    In this episode of SaaS Founder Stories, I sit down with Grin Lord, co-founder and CEO of Mpathic, to talk about one of the hardest realities in SaaS — what to do when you find product-market fit… but the market isn’t big enough.

    Grin and her team found early traction helping psychedelic drug trials analyze long-form patient recordings using AI. But with a ceiling...

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    In this episode of SaaS Founder Stories, I sit down with Gaurav Bhattacharya, co-founder and CEO of Jeeva AI, to break down how his team went from layoffs to $5M ARR in under a year — powered almost entirely by AI.

    After their first product failed to scale, Gaurav and his co-founder built an AI sales automation tool just to survive. That tool became Jeeva AI — now used by 300+ customers and scaling with no sales team, no paid ads, a...

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    >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠David Brennan⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

    >>  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Arkeo AI⁠, SaaS Copilot

    In this episode of SaaS Founder Stories, I talk with Vaughan Shanks, co-founder and CEO of Cydarm, about what happens when you’re forced to cut the team — but don’t want to lose momentum. Cydarm is a cybersecurity platform built for real-world collaboration. After downsizing in 2023, they didn’t just survive. They got faster.

    KEY TAKEAWAYS
    → Cuts forced ...

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    >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠David Brennan⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

    >>  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Arkeo AI⁠, SaaS Copilot

    In this episode of SaaS Founder Stories, I talk with Gorish Aggarwal, co-founder and CEO of Sybill, about the unexpected challenge of finding engineers after hitting product-market fit. Sybill had real traction, a strong AI core, and big customer interest — but struggled to hire. The reason? The brand didn’t match the technical depth. So they rebuilt their st...

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    >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠David Brennan⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

    >>  ⁠⁠⁠⁠Arkeo AI⁠, SaaS Copilot


    In this episode of SaaS Founder Stories, I sit down with Raja Singh, co-founder and CEO of Revolear, to talk about what happens when a seasoned enterprise seller goes solo — and hits a wall. Raja built his career at Vlocity and Salesforce. But when he launched Revolear, he had to relearn how to sell from scratch — without a brand, withou...

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    What do you do when your product still works — but no one’s buying it anymore?

    In this episode of SaaS Founder Stories, I talk with Rachel Liaw, co-founder and CEO of Fuse Inventory, about the moment she paused all sales, accepted churn, and rebuilt her product from the ground up. This is what it looks like when a founder stops chasing revenue — and starts building something uncuttable.

    KEY TAKEAWAYS
    → Fuse went from helpful plann...

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    In this episode of SaaS Founder Stories, I sit down with Dr. Rani Powers, founder and CEO of Pluto, to talk about what it really takes to sell software into Big Pharma. Pluto didn’t just build a great product — they built trust, compliance, and clarity before writing a single cold email.

    KEY TAKEAWAYS
    → Pluto helps scientists analyze massive molecular datasets faster
    → Compliance (SOC 2, genomic protections) was baked in from ...

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    >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠David Brennan⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

    >>  ⁠⁠⁠Arkeo AI⁠, SaaS Copilot


    In this episode of SaaS Founder Stories, I sit down with Kutlay Kunbi, co-founder and CTO of Rently, to talk about what it actually takes to find product-market fit. Kutlay and his team built — and failed — twice before hitting on a product renters and operators truly wanted. This one’s packed with hard-earned lessons on testing, focus, and letting go of the bu...

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    >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠David Brennan⁠⁠⁠⁠

    >>  ⁠⁠Arkeo AI⁠, SaaS Copilot

    In this episode of SaaS Founder Stories, I talk with Travis Knipe, CEO of StarRez, about how he built a category-defining platform in student housing — bootstrapped, profitable, and global — before ever raising outside capital. This is what it looks like to raise with purpose, not pressure.

    KEY TAKEAWAYS
    → StarRez scaled to 1,300+ institutions before raising capital...

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    >> ⁠⁠⁠David Brennan⁠⁠⁠

    >>  ⁠Arkeo AI⁠, SaaS Copilot

    In this episode of SaaS Founder Stories, I chat with Fengmin Gong, founder of MetaFoodX, about how his team is tackling food waste, compliance, and operations in one of the most overlooked sectors in tech: institutional food service. From university dining halls to hospitality kitchens, this story is all about solving real-world problems — not just building dashboards.

    KE...

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    >> ⁠⁠David Brennan⁠⁠

    >>  Arkeo AI


    Kyle Clements, CEO and Co-founder of Quipli, shares his raw and honest journey from identifying a niche market to building a successful SaaS product.

    In this episode, Kyle reveals:

    • Why understanding your customers better than they understand themselves is key to product success.
    • How focusing on the right customers transformed Quipli’s retention and growth.
    • The hard lessons behind sayin...
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    >> ⁠⁠David Brennan⁠⁠

    >> ⁠⁠Arkeo AI

    In this episode of SaaS Founder Stories, I talk with Scott Edmonds, CRO and founding team member at Syncari, about the chaos of disconnected systems and misaligned metrics — and how Syncari is helping ops teams solve it with modern, codeless master data management.

    KEY TAKEAWAYS
    → Syncari creates a unified data layer for every team — no code required
    → It syncs across CRM, ERP, supp...

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