Best Stage Zero Studio Podcasts (2025)

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How to Turn a Domain into a Global Pilates Brand for Studio Owners with Nathan Bethell 51:06

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5h ago51:06

51:06

Welcome to The Engine Founders' Stories Podcast. Host Donna Owen sits down with Nathan Bethell, Founder of REFORMERPILATES.COM, a platform uniting studios, instructors, and fans of REFORMERPILATES. Nathan is also a B2B Marketing Consultant at B2B CMO, with over 20 years of experience in marketing across publishing, tech, and IT services. In this ep…

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The Most Misleading Plays in Product, Unmasked 20:33

6d ago20:33

20:33

There’s a lot of smoke and mirrors in product right now—especially when it comes to AI. Shiny tools and slick prototypes are masquerading as production-ready solutions, and teams are feeling the pressure to keep up. But what happens when the hype outpaces the fundamentals? Hannah sits down with Matt Graney, CPO of Celigo, to talk about bad product …

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How Startup Founders Can Fix Hiring by Replacing Recruiters with Sales Operators - Luke Barry 50:32

15d ago50:32

50:32

Welcome to The Engine - Founders Stories Podcast. Host Donna Owen chats with Luke B. (Luke Barry), Co-Founder and Head of Growth & GTM of How Ya Doing, a talent-as-a-service firm that combines deep sales expertise with executive search proficiency. Before launching his own business, Luke spent 15 years in enterprise sales and payments with Lloyds B…

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The Product Leader’s Guide to Buyer Psychology 30:01

17d ago30:01

30:01

Every product team faces the same monster: conversion optimization. But in 2025, the game has changed. With AI agents influencing discovery and AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) reshaping how people (and machines) interpret messaging, teams are now marketing to both human and agentic audiences. In this episode, Hannah Clark sits down with Chris Silv…

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The Hybrid Workspace Strategy for Startup Founders to Solve Office Challenges with Jules Robertson 46:33

1M ago46:33

46:33

Welcome to The Engine - Founders Stories Podcast. Host Donna Owen chats with Jules Robertson, Co-founder of Tally Workspace, a platform helping startups and scale-ups find flexible office spaces. Jules shares how COVID sparked the idea, how she and her co-founder bootstrapped early on, and why speaking to thousands of businesses shaped their growth…

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The Recruitment Tech Hacks for Sales Leaders to Drive Warm Leads with Zero Budget with Darren Westall 42:56

1M ago42:56

42:56

Welcome to The Engine - Founders Stories Podcast. Host Donna Owen talks with Darren Westall, Co-Founder and CEO of Paiger, a business development tool for recruiters. Darren shares how his tech background and early sales hustle helped him build Paiger from the ground up. He opens up about learning by doing, bootstrapping the company, and growing it…

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The Bootstrapped Playbook for Founders to Build a Global Logistics Business using AI - Leroy Lawrence 58:19

2M ago58:19

58:19

Welcome to The Engine - Founders Stories Podcast. Host Donna Owen talks with Leroy Lawrence, the Founder of Pigee Inc, CEO of Quadron Capital Ltd, Angel Investor and Director at Lawrence Investment Holdings Ltd, and Chairman of Wellbeing of My Baby. Leroy shares how his travel struggles inspired Pigee, an AI-powered shipping tool that helps tourist…

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Why It’s So Hard to Adopt New Skills (with Maxine Anderson, Co-Founder & CPO at Arist) 28:00

2M ago28:00

28:00

Every product manager obsesses over leadership styles, onboarding flows, and GTM strategies—but what if the biggest differentiator of success comes down to something much simpler? Learning. In this episode, Hannah Clark sits down with Maxine Anderson, Co-Founder and CPO of Arist, a text-based learning platform that flips traditional corporate educa…

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How Venti Raised £800K & Built AI to Fix BD for Agencies Starting from Sheets with Cameron & Itamar 1:02:56

2M ago1:02:56

1:02:56

Welcome to The Engine - Founders Stories Podcast. Host Donna Owen is joined by Cameron Briggs, the CEO and Co-Founder, and Itamar Yeshua, the COO and Co-Founder of Vente AI. They share how their experience in recruitment led them to create Venti, an AI-driven platform designed to help recruiters find leads and connect with hiring managers quickly. …

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How and Why to start a podcast for your business. 20:25

2M ago20:25

20:25

How and Why to start a podcast for your business.

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How American Express 4x Its Experimentation Velocity in 1 Year (with Jean Castanon, VP of Digital Product at American Express) 19:22

3M ago19:22

19:22

Every product leader wrestles with the same tradeoff: move fast and risk breaking things, or move slow and risk irrelevance. But what if the real accelerator wasn’t cutting corners—it was systematizing experimentation? In this episode, Hannah Clark sits down with Jean Castanon, VP of Digital Product at American Express, to explore how his team quad…

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The Leadership Training That Turns Technical Experts into Effective Leaders with Marina Robertson 55:10

3M ago55:10

55:10

Welcome to The Engine - Founders Stories Podcast. Host Donna Owen is joined by Marina Robertson, who is the Owner and Founder of BERKANO Consulting. Marina shares how her love for learning, her journey from Greece, and years in construction shaped her business. She talks about leadership, building confidence, and helping others grow with the right …

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How to Navigate “Growing Pains” in Scaling Orgs (with Matthew Wensing, Head of Product and Design at Customer.io) 45:59

3M ago45:59

45:59

Startups don’t get easier with age—they just get more complex. Much like teenagers, scale-ups are constantly outgrowing their structures, still figuring out their identity, and not always great at setting realistic goals. But this awkward “in-between” stage isn’t a failure—it’s a rite of passage on the path to becoming a mature company. In this epi…

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How a Founder Built a SaaS for Recruitment Revenue Protection After ADHD Diagnosis with David Clark 59:03

3M ago59:03

59:03

Welcome to The Engine - Founders' Stories Podcast. Host Donna Owen is joined by David Clark is Founder of bobcheck, Managing Director of Cataphract, and Investor at Equitas. David shares how his years in recruitment, a lightbulb idea during lockdown, and his ADHD journey shaped his business. He discusses building a niche product, lessons on persist…

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How to Balance Speed and Value: The Essential Role of Empathy in the AI Product Era (with Megan O'Rourke, Executive Director of Product at Metalab) 41:44

3M ago41:44

41:44

The Tin Man’s silk heart in The Wizard of Oz is a perfect metaphor for AI right now—it can convincingly mimic empathy, but it’s not the real thing. In this episode, Hannah Clark sits down with Megan O’Rourke, Executive Director of Product at Metalab, to explore the delicate balance between AI-powered productivity and human-driven resonance. They di…

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How to Adapt to the New Gold Standard in Product Management (with Maryam Ashoori, VP of Product and Engineering at IBM Watsonx) 29:22

3M ago29:22

29:22

Product management isn’t just evolving—it’s getting completely rewritten. In this episode, Hannah sits down with Dr. Maryam Ashoori, VP of Product and Engineering at IBM Watsonx, to talk about how AI is reshaping not only the tools product managers use, but the very nature of the role itself. Maryam brings two decades of experience in AI across des…

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How I Survived the Past 3 Years in Product Leadership (with Michael Luchen, Product Transformation Architect) 29:09

4M ago29:09

29:09

When AI was just a sci-fi footnote and “product transformation” sounded like a buzzword, Michael Luchen was already in the trenches. In this episode, Hannah sits down with the original host of The Product Manager Podcast to unpack three years of change—from his early missteps to building scalable systems and navigating the AI tidal wave with nuance…

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How AI Founders Built and Sold a Startup in 2 Years to Achieve Early Exit Success with Thomas Vose 43:53

4M ago43:53

43:53

Welcome to The Engine - Founders' Stories Podcast. Host Donna Owen is joined by Thomas Vose, founder of HireAra, a startup that uses AI to help recruiters format CVs. From a student project to a big tech acquisition, Tom talks about how he turned a simple idea into a fast-growing business and shares lessons on risk, teamwork, and the future of AI. …

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Vibe Coding 101: A Zero-to-One Hands-On Workshop (with Drew Falkman, Principal at Moves The Needle Studio) 20:07

4M ago20:07

20:07

If you’ve heard the buzz about Vibe Coding but aren’t quite sure what’s real and what’s hype, this episode is your shortcut to clarity. Recorded live at our hands-on Vibe Coding Workshop, this 30-minute seminar with Drew Falkman (Principal at Moves The Needle) unpacks what Vibe Coding actually is, where it fits in the product lifecycle, and how non…

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How Introvert Founders Succeed without Personal Branding in a Broken System with Luke Pilfold Thomas 49:27

4M ago49:27

49:27

Welcome to The Engine - Founders' Stories Podcast. Host Donna Owen chats with Luke P. (Luke Pilfold Thomas). He is an investor and board advisor at ProDataStack, an investor and NED at Dote and Talentloop, as well as the investor and co-founder of Aitemology. Additionally, he serves as the investor and chief strategy officer at Finity and a behind-…

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CRM Automation Success in Recruitment for Non-Tech Founders to Scale Niche Firms with Holly Langley 48:53

4M ago48:53

48:53

Welcome to The Engine - Founders' Stories Podcast. Host Donna Owen chats with Holly Langley, founder of RE:STACK, a company helping recruiters get more from their tech. Holly shares how she went from nannying to leading a niche CRM consultancy. She talks about the power of saying no, building a strong team, and learning cash flow the hard way. With…

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SaaS Lessons for Founders to Rebuild After a Failed Launch Using the Power of User Data | Alexandra 42:04

4M ago42:04

42:04

Welcome to the Founder Stories Podcast. Host Donna Owen talks with Alexandra Chirica, founder of Recfindr, a new tech tool helping recruiters manage client deals better. From her early days in recruitment to starting a tech business, Alexandra shares her journey, why she pivoted her product, and how she raised funds as a solo founder. She opens up …

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How to Turn Neurodivergent 'Challenges' Into Leadership Superpowers (with Frankie Berkoben) 48:30

4M ago48:30

48:30

ADHD might be the product trait nobody’s putting on their resume—but maybe they should. In this episode, Hannah sits down with executive coach Frankie Berkoben to unpack the complex intersection of ADHD, executive function, and product leadership. Together, they explore how ADHD traits like systems thinking, emotional intelligence, and comfort with…

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The Retirement Trap for Underserved UK Workers to Unlock Lost Pensions with Royden Greaves 53:17

5M ago53:17

53:17

Welcome to the Founder Stories Podcast. Host Donna Owen is joined by Royden Greaves, founder of Jarvis, a fintech company that helps people understand and manage their pensions. From his early days growing up in Montserrat to leading a tech startup, Royden shares his journey, his passion for financial education, and how Jarvis is making pensions ea…

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BREAKING: Trump Holds Roundtable At Florida 'Alligator Alcatraz' With DeSantis And Noem 1:12:03

4M ago1:12:03

1:12:03

Trump Holds Roundtable At Florida 'Alligator Alcatraz' With DeSantis And Noem

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Finding Your Unfair Advantage in Product’s Wild West Era (with Margaret-Ann Seger, Head of Product at Statsig) 26:08

5M ago26:08

26:08

Product-market fit isn’t enough anymore. In an age where AI is making it easier for anyone to ship a half-decent product, the real battleground is distribution. Margaret-Ann Seger (Head of Product at Statsig) joins Hannah Clark to talk about how AI is reshaping go-to-market strategy, why speed and feedback loops are becoming product differentiators…

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WOW: Josh Hawley Goes Absolutely Insane On 23andMe CEO, "Should Be Sued Into Oblivion" 8:16

4M ago8:16

8:16

WOW: Josh Hawley Goes Absolutely Insane On 23andMe CEO, "Should Be Sued Into Oblivion"

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Bernie Sanders SLAMS TRUMP, Issues Major Warning That 50,000 Americans Will Die because Big Beautiful Bill 21:53

5M ago21:53

21:53

Bernie Sanders Issues Major Warning That 50,000 Americans Will Die Yearly and SLAMS Trumps Big Beautiful Bill

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BREAKING: Elon Musk Subpoena grinds DOGE Hearing to halt 4:21

5M ago4:21

4:21

BREAKING: Elon Musk Subpoena grinds DOGE Hearing to halt

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BREAKING NEWS: DOGE Hearing - Marjorie Taylor Greene Battles Democrats In Combustible Talk 1:58:53

5M ago1:58:53

1:58:53

BREAKING NEWS: Marjorie Taylor Greene Battles Democrats In Combustible DOGE Hearing

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The Systems Thinking Process Used by the Most Adaptable Product Leaders (with Sheryl Cababa, Author of Closing the Loop) 42:53

5M ago42:53

42:53

What if instead of racing to solve problems, you paused to map the entire system first? In this episode, Hannah sits down with Sheryl Cababa—author of Closing the Loop: Systems Thinking for Designers and founder of Optimistic Design—to talk about what it really means to design for complexity. From AI adoption to organizational policy changes, Shery…

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Iran launches missile strike on US military base in Qatar amid rising tensions 4:19

5M ago4:19

4:19

Iran launches missile strike on US military base in Qatar amid rising tensions

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What Does Engineering Excellence Look Like in the Age of AI? (with Anish Dhar, Co-founder and CEO of Cortex.io) 29:12

5M ago29:12

29:12

The “AI is coming for your job” headlines have been exhausting—especially if you're a software engineer. But as Cortex.io founder Anish Dhar explains, engineering isn’t dying; it's evolving. In this episode, Hannah sits down with Anish to unpack what engineering excellence actually means in 2025, why measuring developer productivity is still wildly…

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How to Make Passion Your Differentiator in an AI-Driven World (with Norma Løvhaugen, VP Strategy at Neat) 38:39

5M ago38:39

38:39

What does passion really look like on a product team? In this episode, Hannah sits down with Norma Løvhaugen, VP Strategy at Neat, to unpack how passion fuels team collaboration, customer empathy, and a culture of innovation. They explore the difference between building products with passion versus simply shipping features—and why that distinction …

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Elon Musk Torches Trump’s ‘Beautiful’ Bill: Calls It a ‘Disgusting Abomination’ and Threatens GOP 6:47

5M ago6:47

6:47

Elon Musk called President Trump’s signature domestic policy legislation a “disgusting abomination” and accused Congress of “making America bankrupt.” That attack came just days after a farewell ceremony in the Oval Office, where Musk and Trump praised each other and celebrated Musk’s exit from his advisory role as head of the Department of Governm…

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Mastercard’s SVP of Global Products on How to Enter New Markets (with Simone Paul Tamussin) 24:49

6M ago24:49

24:49

Expanding internationally is more complex than ever, with economic uncertainty, shifting regulations, and unpredictable tariffs creating constant challenges. While overseas opportunities can be tempting, businesses must navigate a landscape full of blind spots and evolving risks that demand careful planning and adaptability. Simone Tamussin, SVP of…

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Managing Stakeholder Perception: How Product Leaders Build—and Lose—Influence (with Carolyn Dolezal & Kate Leto) 35:18

6M ago35:18

35:18

Two seasoned executive coaches, Carolyn Dolezal and Kate Leto, share candid insights on the realities of executive leadership and how to truly earn the trust and confidence of your team and stakeholders. They debunk common myths and explore how personal agendas can undermine leadership effectiveness, while offering practical advice for building inf…

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New Episode Coming Soon! 0:41

6M ago0:41

0:41

Ready to supercharge your growth? Join Donna Owen on The Engine – Founders Stories, where she sits down with SaaS and fintech trailblazers who’ve broken free from the founder-led sales grind and built predictable, scalable revenue engines. In each bite-sized episode, you’ll pick up real-world tactics—from hiring that crucial first rep to rolling ou…

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How Parenting Made Me a Better Product Leader (with Anuj Jhunjhunwala, Director of Product at Merge) 32:08

6M ago32:08

32:08

Becoming a parent profoundly changes how you approach product leadership, blending personal and professional challenges in unexpected ways. Anuj Jhunjhunwala, Director of Product at Merge, shares how parenting teaches lessons in influence without authority, clear communication, and time management that directly apply to leading products. Anuj offer…

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The AI-Enhanced Team: A New Playbook for Product Leaders (with Andrew Saxe, VP of Product at Smartling) 27:10

6M ago27:10

27:10

As we navigate the AI revolution, we’re collectively creating a new reality that’s far from utopian, and both leaders and individual contributors are struggling to find their way through the uncertainty. Questions around workplace ethics, output quality, and long-term impacts are top of mind for many, but this presents an opportunity to learn from …

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Confirmed: SpaceX Starship Flight 9 Launch Date May 19 - More Details inside. 5:17

6M ago5:17

5:17

Confirmed: SpaceX Starship Flight 9 Launch Date May 19 - More Details inside.

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Sheldon Whitehouse Accuses Musk Of Using DOGE To Undermine Social Security In Push To Privatize It 6:00

6M ago6:00

6:00

Sheldon Whitehouse Accuses Musk Of Using DOGE To Undermine Social Security In Push To Privatize It

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How to Be ‘Limitless’: The Mindset Shift That Opens Doors (with Uma Subramanian, Founder of Limitless Leaders) 32:46

7M ago32:46

32:46

What's holding you back from reaching your next level? For many, the biggest obstacle is often a mental one, not a physical one. By shifting your perspective and zooming out, you can find pathways around the challenges that seem insurmountable. Uma Subramanian, founder of Limitless Leaders and former Microsoft leader, shares her journey of achievin…

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SpaceX Starship Flight 9 Update - IFT9 News and Technical Information 8:07

6M ago8:07

8:07

SpaceX Starship Flight 9 Update - IFT9 News and Technical Information

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Elon Musk DOGE Update 10:16

6M ago10:16

10:16

Donald Trump and Elon Musk Promised $2 Trillion, but they can't find it.

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Elon Musk is spending billions to influence midterm elections in the USA 5:13

6M ago5:13

5:13

Elon Musk is spending billions to dangerously influence midterm elections

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Elon and DOGE lied to us all 12:14

7M ago12:14

12:14

Elon and DOGE lied to us all

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How to Use AI to Research Like a Researcher (with Cori Widen, User Research Lead at Photoroom) 23:59

7M ago23:59

23:59

Research has often suffered from shortcuts, assumptions, and poorly conducted user interviews, long before AI entered the picture. While there are concerns about AI exacerbating these issues, today we’re exploring how AI can actually improve research practices by standardizing and democratizing good research at scale. Cori Widen, User Research Lead…

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SpaceX's Dirty Move to Lock Out South Texas Families 9:45

7M ago9:45

9:45

SpaceX's Dirty Move to Lock Out South Texas Families