Podcast Overview
<p>Ready, Fire, Aim is a podcast for action-takers. Those who understand that imperfect action is better than no action at all. Hosted by Thad Barnes, founder of Epoch Digital Media, the show explores what it really takes to grow and adapt in today’s fast-moving world of business and technology. We talk with founders, operators, and thought leaders who know that waiting for perfect can kill momentum — and that launching fast, learning, and iterating is where real growth happens.</p>
Language
🇺🇲
Publishing Since
8/14/2025
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Recent Episodes
March 19, 2026
The 5 Levels of AI Nobody's Talking About with Victor Kovalev
<p>🚀 What if your AI could THINK like a C-suite executive — not just follow instructions?</p><p>In this episode of Ready, Fire, Aim, host Thad sits down with Victor Kovalev, AI scientist, 3x IPO veteran, and co-founder of Scale-Agentic, to unpack a completely new approach to go-to-market strategy. Victor reveals why the secret sauce behind his AI platform ISN'T a large language model — and breaks down the 5 levels of AI that most founders, marketers, and business leaders have never heard of.</p><p>Whether you're a startup founder drowning in GTM tools, a sales leader trying to scale outbound, or just curious about where AI is ACTUALLY heading — this conversation will change how you think about artificial intelligence in business.</p><p>🔥 In this episode you'll learn: ✅ Why tool adoption fails — and what actually works instead ✅ The CFO lunch story that changed everything at Redbubble ✅ How Scale-Agentic's "Agent Scout" operates like a human GTM executive ✅ The difference between agentic AI and true strategic AI ✅ Victor's 5 levels of AI framework — and why most companies are stuck at level 1 ✅ How to get BCG-level market intelligence in 1 week instead of 3 months</p><p>💡 If you're building with AI, leading a GTM team, or exploring how to hire your first AI executive — don't miss this one.</p><p>👇 Connect with Victor Kovalev & Scale-Agentic: 🔗 <a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/kovalevvictor/" target="_blank">https://www.linkedin.com/in/kovalevvictor/</a></p><p>👇 Connect with Thad Barnes: 🔗 <a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/thadbarnes/" target="_blank">https://www.linkedin.com/in/thadbarnes/</a></p><p>📩 Want to be a guest on Ready, Fire, Aim? Reach out!</p><p>⏱️ TIMESTAMPS:</p><p>00:00 — Intro & Victor's background: from robotic search-and-rescue to Silicon Valley</p><p>01:29 — Running Yelp's mobile teams to a top-10 app in the world</p><p>02:18 — Moving to Australia to CTO a unicorn through IPO</p><p>03:15 — Why smart teams still fail at adopting technology</p><p>05:19 — The Redbubble story: tools failed, lunch meetings succeeded</p><p>06:18 — Aligning personal KPIs with company goals</p><p>07:46 — How a CTO bridges the gap between tech and business</p><p>08:29 — A tale of failure and success at Redbubble</p><p>10:10 — Embedding data scientists in teams instead of pushing tools</p><p>12:52 — The overlooked power of listening UP to your boss</p><p>14:06 — What Scale-Agentic is and why it exists</p><p>15:30 — Why people are drowning in GTM tools</p><p>17:11 — Building an AI executive, not another AI tool</p><p>18:01 — Meet Agent Scout: the AI GTM executive</p><p>20:27 — What's under the hood: LLMs vs. the real secret sauce</p><p>21:59 — How humans make high-stakes decisions with crappy data</p><p>22:28 — The evolutionary heuristics engine explained</p><p>23:36 — Your brain's "task scheduler" and why AI needs one too</p><p>27:28 — The 5 levels of AI: from copilots to superintelligence</p><p>30:18 — Why Scale-Agentic is two steps ahead of the industry</p><p>33:55 — Why single agents should do single tasks</p><p>36:12 — The founder spending half his time duct-taping GTM tools</p><p>38:35 — Iterative change: 6 months with a human vs. days with AI</p><p>40:01 — 24 research pieces in one week vs. 3 months from consultants</p><p>40:38 — What onboarding Agent Scout looks like</p><p>44:17 — Scale-Agentic's ideal customer profile</p><p>46:00 — Funding plans and what's next</p><p>48:31 — Final thoughts and where to connect</p><p>#AI #ArtificialIntelligence #AIStartup #GoToMarket #GTMStrategy #AgenticAI #SalesAutomation #B2BSales #StartupFounder #AIExecutive #ScaleAgentic #LLM #AITools #GrowthHacking #TechStartup #SaaS #AIinBusiness #Entrepreneurship #ReadyFireAim #Podcast #VictorKovalev #Leadership #CTO #ProductLedGrowth #FutureOfAI #AIStrategy</p>
March 17, 2026
Ready Fire Aim Podcast — Jazib Ahmad on AI Context, Vibe Coding & Building Scouty
<p></p><p>Jazib Ahmad is a serial founder who's been deep in the AI trenches — from tackling the context window problem with his tool Open Context, to launching his newest startup Scouty in real time. In this conversation, Thad and Jazib dig into why bigger context windows aren't the real solution, how vibe coding is changing what one person can build, and why the best version of your product should probably embarrass you a little.</p><p>Jazib shares how he went from struggling to find the right industry events for his first startup to building an AI-powered tool that finds them for you — and why distribution, not development, is the real bottleneck in 2026.</p><p>0:00 Welcome & Intro</p><p>0:22 The context window problem: why bigger isn't always better</p><p>2:12 Managing long conversations with AI</p><p>3:13 Open Context and visual conversation branching</p><p>5:14 Using GitHub repos to manage prompt context</p><p>6:25 Reinforcement learning agents that learn which context matters</p><p>7:26 AI startups raising millions on potential alone</p><p>9:10 Vibe coding vs. the hybrid approach</p><p>11:04 How AI changed frontend development overnight</p><p>12:53 Prompting strategies: examples, branching & experimentation</p><p>14:27 Branching conversations across AI platforms</p><p>16:13 The leap in AI coding tools recently</p><p>17:29 Simple language prompting finally works</p><p>19:33 What's next: physical AI, robotics & LLM limits</p><p>22:51 Why top AI scientists are leaving big companies</p><p>23:47 AI-powered startups transforming every industry</p><p>24:43 Introducing Scouty: AI event discovery for founders</p><p>28:29 How Scouty differs from Borty and Luma</p><p>33:01 The engineering challenge of scraping events at scale</p><p>36:22 Building a website in a day and an MVP in a week</p><p>37:34 Distribution is the new bottleneck</p><p>38:39 Habituation, attention & the evolving marketing landscape</p><p>44:24 Launch fast and let users guide you</p><p>45:48 Overcoming the fear of public failure</p><p>47:07 The obstacle is the path</p><p>49:28 Wrap-up & what's next for Jazib</p><p>🔗 Connect with Jazib: LinkedIn: <a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jazib-ahmad-450/" target="_blank">https://www.linkedin.com/in/jazib-ahmad-450/</a></p><p>Scouty: <a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.meetscouty.com/" target="_blank">https://www.meetscouty.com/</a></p><p>🔗 Connect with Thad: <a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/thadbarnes/" target="_blank">https://www.linkedin.com/in/thadbarnes/</a></p><p>💬 Like this episode? Let us know!</p><p></p><p>#AI #Startups #VibeCoding #ContextWindow #AItools #Founders #ReadyFireAim #Podcast</p>
November 24, 2025
The Death of Websites: David Siegel on AI's New Economy
<p>🔥 <b>Welcome back to the Ready Fire, Aim Podcast!</b><br />In this episode, Thad Barnes sits down with long-time technologist, AI pioneer, and founder of <b>Redshift Labs</b>, <b>David Siegel</b> — a man who was taking AI classes at Stanford back in <i>1983</i>… before most people even knew what a computer was.</p><p>This conversation goes <i>deep</i> into:</p><ul><li>The early days of AI (yes, before the internet)</li><li>Why today’s LLMs work the way they do</li><li>How hallucinations really happen — and how to reduce them</li><li>Why attention is the “secret sauce” behind modern AI</li><li>The future of agents, the death of websites, and the agentic economy</li><li>What business owners <i>must</i> do to survive the coming shift</li><li>Why offers matter more than marketing</li><li>How AI will replace apps, OS’s, and how we buy/sell everything</li><li>The rise of wearables, personal assistants, and on-the-fly agentic commerce</li></ul><p>David also explains why your business model, not your marketing, is what AI will judge…<br />…and how the companies who adapt their <i>offers</i> (not their keywords) will win the next decade.</p><p>If you care about business, AI, or the future at all — this is one of those conversations that hits hard.</p><hr /><h3>🔗 Connect With David Siegel</h3><p>LinkedIn: <a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-siegel-9786582a7/" target="_blank">https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-siegel-9786582a7/</a><br />Website (Redshift Labs): <a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.redshiftlabs.io/" target="_blank">https://www.redshiftlabs.io/</a></p><h3>🔗 Connect With Thad Barnes</h3><p>LinkedIn: <a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/thadbarnes/" target="_blank">https://www.linkedin.com/in/thadbarnes/</a><br />Website (Epoch Digital Media): <a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://epochdm.com" target="_blank">https://epochdm.com</a></p><hr /><h3>🎧 <b>About the Ready Fire, Aim Podcast</b></h3><p>Ready Fire Aim is where business owners, operators, and builders come to understand the evolving world of AI, marketing, and growth — without the fluff. Real conversations with real experts who are shaping the future.<br /></p><h3><b>Timestamps:</b><br /><b>0:00 — Intro</b><br /><b>0:42 — David’s 1983 AI Origin Story</b><br /><b>2:00 — Early Speech Recognition Madness</b><br /><b>3:45 — How Transformers Actually Work</b><br /><b>5:30 — Predictive Text → Modern AI</b><br /><b>12:25 — Why AI Hallucinates</b><br /><b>14:30 — Training Data Explained Simply</b><br /><b>16:30 — Can AI “Think”?</b><br /><b>32:00 — The Agentic Future (David’s 2010 Vision)</b><br /><b>35:45 — AI-Generated Everything (Movies, Music, Games)</b><br /><b>46:40 — How AI Really Finds Information</b><br /><b>47:15 — The Death of Websites</b><br /><b>55:20 — Why Offers Beat Marketing</b><br /><b>57:15 — Agent-to-Agent Negotiation</b><br /><b>58:50 — Marketing Can't Save a Bad Product</b><br /><b>1:02:40 — Brand Loyalty & Product-Market Fit</b><br /><b>1:04:10 — Personal AI Life Management</b><br /><b>1:18:10 — Wearables & AI as the New OS</b><br /><b>1:25:00 — Open Protocols & Global Infrastructure</b><br /><b>1:30:00 — AI Eating the Legal Industry</b><br /><b>1:35:20 — Self-Driving Reality Check</b><br /><b>1:36:40 — The #1 AI Advice for Business Owners</b><br /><b>1:44:00 — Redshift’s Agentic Sales System</b><br /><b>1:46:00 — Final Thoughts</b></h3>
10 total episodes available
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- What is Ready, Fire, Aim?
<p>Ready, Fire, Aim is a podcast for action-takers. Those who understand that imperfect action is better than no action at all. Hosted by Thad Barnes, founder of Epoch Digital Media, the show explores what it really takes to grow and adapt in today’s fast-moving world of business and technology. We talk with founders, operators, and thought leaders who know that waiting for perfect can kill momentum — and that launching fast, learning, and iterating is where real growth happens.</p> - How often does this podcast release new episodes?
This podcast updates daily.
- Where can I listen to this podcast?
This podcast is available on 4 platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more. You can also use the RSS feed directly.
- Does this podcast accept guests?
Yes, this podcast regularly features guests.
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