Turning Trash into Tech: The Garbage Company Using AI to Save Millions with Ryan Collins
Release Date: 12/04/2025
Speed to Value, Solving a $200K Warehouse Problem With AI in 3 Days
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In this episode, I walk through a real, high-stakes moment inside a warehousing and logistics operation, thousands of pallets of telecom cable, a hard year-end deadline, and a task nobody actually owned. The team was facing a potential six-figure hit, measuring precious metal content by hand with clipboards and micrometers, under serious time pressure. During a simple office hours session, we paused, reframed the problem, and realized this wasn’t a labor issue at all. It was a vision problem. What followed was a fast, scrappy sprint. Sales, warehouse staff, and engineers worked side by side....
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Product Discovery, Outcome Based Delivery, And Hiring for Product Thinking with MAC of Wednesday.is
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Is your team writing code before they’ve actually validated the problem? In this episode, Ashok sits down with Mohammed Ali Cherwala (MAC), co-founder of Wednesday Solutions, to dismantle the traditional "build first" mentality. Mac explains why "Product Engineering" is distinct from simple software development and how his firm uses "Sprint Zero" to validate ideas cheaply using methods like fake door tests and prototypes—ensuring you don't waste capital on features nobody wants. We also dive into a radical business model shift: moving from hourly billing to outcome-based pricing, where...
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BUILD vs. BUY: The Software Math That Saved A CEO Millions
Convergence.fm
Are you stuck deciding between building custom software or buying an expensive SaaS solution? In this episode, Ashok breaks down a real-world workshop with a medical device CEO facing a costly operational bottleneck. You’ll learn how to size problems effectively to ensure they are worth the tech investment and why "renting" software might actually be the fastest path to owning your own high-value IP. Ashok challenges the common "tech-enabled" playbook—hiring a C-suite CTO immediately—and offers a leaner alternative: the "In-House Prototyper." Discover how using AI tools and low-code...
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Why Smart Companies Fail: Information Asymmetry Explained
Convergence.fm
Why do smart leadership teams with great strategies still fail to execute? The answer often isn't a lack of talent, but a hidden structural problem called Information Asymmetry. In this episode, host Ashok Sivanand breaks down a real-world case study of a CEO (Visionary) and COO (Integrator) who trusted each other implicitly but still struggled to drive change. You’ll learn why "scaling efficiency" often comes at the cost of "scaling understanding," and how to fix the gap between your boardroom strategy and your frontline reality. Ashok explores how world-class organizations like Toyota,...
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From Fortune 50 Strategy to AI Coaching Tools: Ben Perreau on Leading Better
Convergence.fm
Ben Perreau has helped CEOs of some of the world’s most influential companies define their next act. But instead of staying in the boardroom, he turned his attention to the managers on the front lines, the people who quietly make or break culture every day. In this episode, Ben joins Ashok to talk about why so many managers feel underprepared, how culture actually changes, and how his latest venture, Parafoil, is using psycholinguistics and AI to build better leaders in real time. From navigating billion dollar strategy shifts to coaching individual managers through difficult feedback...
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Stop Installing Copilot: The Real Way to Lead an AI Transformation in ANY Business
Convergence.fm
Learn how a garbage collection company saved millions by adopting AI without a tech team or a massive budget. This episode deconstructs how traditional businesses can bypass expensive $100k software contracts by using local devices and open-source models to generate massive ROI safely and quickly. Watch our full episode with Ryan Collins of Tahoe Truckee Sierra Disposal: Unlock the full potential of your product team with Integral's player coaches, experts in lean, human-centered design. Visit integral.io/convergence for a free Product Success Lab workshop to gain clarity and confidence in...
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Turning Trash into Tech: The Garbage Company Using AI to Save Millions with Ryan Collins
Convergence.fm
Ryan Collins calls himself a garbage man, but he's also the Managing Director at Tahoe Truckee Sierra Disposal (TTSD), a third-generation waste collection and recycling company in Northern California. After a stint in Silicon Valley, he came back to join the family business and walked into a world still powered by slide rulers, highlighters, and paper-heavy workflows. Today, his team is building in-house AI tools that are replacing expensive software and solving real operational problems across the business — all with a lean budget, limited tech experience, and a workforce that now regularly...
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Building Global Culture for Purpose and Profit: Lessons from Scaling Twitter with Maya Hari
Convergence.fm
In this episode, Ashok is joined by Maya Hari, global executive, board member, and now co-founder of Genie Health. Maya has led teams across Twitter, Google, Samsung, and other global companies, and now sits on the boards of public enterprises like Saint-Gobain. What makes her perspective rare isn't just her resume. It's her clarity around what culture really is, how to measure it, and how to build it intentionally. Maya shares the three signals she uses to assess culture inside a company, how she assembles high-performing, cohesive teams, and why purpose is at the core of sustainable culture....
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Top 5 Mistakes Leaders Make in AI & Data Strategy, And How to Fix Them with David Cohen
Convergence.fm
Leaders are under pressure to “do something with AI,” but many end up making the same preventable mistakes that derail their data strategy before it starts. In this episode, Ashok sits down with David Cohen, founder of Superposition Strategy, to run a live workshop identifying the top five strategic missteps leaders make—and more importantly, how to avoid them. If you're leading or supporting a data or AI initiative, this episode is your tactical blueprint for getting it right. You’ll hear David walk through an interactive exercise designed to prioritize problems and focus on...
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De-risking AI-enabled Business Models with Lean Thinking
Convergence.fm
In this episode, Ashok shares a story from a long established services company with a big vision for transformation. The leadership team set their sights on launching a new AI enabled membership business. The original plan involved technology, acquisitions, and a long wait before revenue or even a customer touchpoint. Instead of waiting nine months to learn whether the idea would land, they adopted a lean and human centered approach that created clarity and momentum in weeks. Ashok walks through how they reduced risk, accelerated learning, and positioned the business for success without...
info_outlineRyan Collins calls himself a garbage man, but he's also the Managing Director at Tahoe Truckee Sierra Disposal (TTSD), a third-generation waste collection and recycling company in Northern California. After a stint in Silicon Valley, he came back to join the family business and walked into a world still powered by slide rulers, highlighters, and paper-heavy workflows. Today, his team is building in-house AI tools that are replacing expensive software and solving real operational problems across the business — all with a lean budget, limited tech experience, and a workforce that now regularly pitches their own automation ideas.
We talk through how this transformation actually happened. Starting with Excel and a problem-first mindset, Ryan’s weekend vibe coding projects grew into a full-on tech capability at TTSD. From saving $30,000 a year with a $75 microcontroller to avoiding six-figure SaaS spends with local AI tools, this episode is packed with practical stories. We also get into the risks of overengineering, how to decide when to bring in real software engineers, and what hiring looks like when you're prioritizing attitude and curiosity over resumes. If you're looking to build a culture of innovation, even in a non-tech industry, this one is worth a listen.
Unlock the full potential of your product team with Integral's player coaches, experts in lean, human-centered design. Visit integral.io/convergence for a free Product Success Lab workshop to gain clarity and confidence in tackling any product design or engineering challenge.
Inside the episode...
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Why even garbage truck drivers are suggesting AI tools now
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How Ryan turned Excel and a tinkering mindset into a culture of problem solving
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A $75 hardware build that fixed a $30,000-a-year proble
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Why vibe coding is addictive and how they stay focused on what matters
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Building in-house AI tools with Whisper, Mistral, and Claude
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Replacing a $120,000/year call center SaaS with a local tool running on a $2,000 PC
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How they protect customer data while still using AI internally
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When to keep iterating and when to bring in a developer
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What Ryan looks for in tech hires (and why resumes often don’t matter)
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Using AI to bridge the language gap across a mostly Spanish-speaking workforce
Mentioned in this episode
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ESP32 microcontrollers
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OpenAI Whisper (local speech-to-text)
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Mistral (local open source LLM)
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Claude by Anthropic
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11Labs (AI voice translation)
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Google Maps API
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Upwork
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Cursor
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Excel, VBA, Python Pandas
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Alpha fold
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Raptor engine at spaceX
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Stuff Matters: Exploring the Marvelous Materials That Shape Our Man-Made World by Mark Miodownik
Unlock the full potential of your product team with Integral's player coaches, experts in lean, human-centered design. Visit integral.io/convergence for a free Product Success Lab workshop to gain clarity and confidence in tackling any product design or engineering challenge.
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