From Army Veteran to AI Sales Leader with Ben King
Release Date: 08/11/2026
Steve Vincent 39 Years Of Service And He's Not Done
The Jason Cavness Experience
Steve Vincent did 25 years in the Navy, retired as an O-6, and has now spent 14 more years at the same company. He's about to turn 62. His wife has a passport that needs stamps. By most measures, it's time to slow down. He's not doing it. Not yet. Steve says he still has something to contribute, he genuinely likes the team he works with, and he gets zero satisfaction out of selling software just to sell software. The work has to actually help people, or it's not worth doing. He's already thinking about what comes after full-time work too, getting involved with Rotary Club and childhood...
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Barbara Kvelstein Investigates Child Traffickers While Running A Med Spa
The Jason Cavness Experience
Barbara Kvelstein had one facial in her entire life before she bought a medical aesthetics clinic. No aesthetics background, no nurse practitioner license, no industry experience. Just a business she found on LoopNet and a willingness to learn on the way. Barbara is the founder of Nordic Clinic and creator of Norderm, a Scandinavian-inspired skincare line launching out of the clinic. Before any of that, she spent over a decade as a human rights lawyer and anti-trafficking investigator, and traveled to nearly 90 countries as a professional-level tennis player and model. We get into how she...
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Dr. Dave Hester on AI Governance, Consciousness, and Why We're Not Ready for What's Coming
The Jason Cavness Experience
We're building artificial intelligence the way we built nuclear weapons, without the wisdom to manage it. Neuroscientist and AI ethics advisor Dr. Dave Hester argues that regulation isn't coming from Congress; it's coming from you, your company, and the engineers who know the real risks. If the researchers behind GPT and Claude are asking for a slowdown, we should pay attention. This is not a podcast about AI slop or image filters. This is about the moment right before we decide whether AI serves everyone or just the people who can afford it. It's also about consciousness, multiverse theory,...
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How a Gold Star Military Spouse Built a 3D Printing Company Around Real Math
The Jason Cavness Experience
Paula Thomas left Amazon after 14 years as a software engineer. She's now running Viter Manufacturing—a 3D printing company focused on custom retail displays. But she's not a typical startup founder. She's a Gold Star military spouse, which means her husband died in service. Her approach to building a company around grief, resilience, and curiosity is the opposite of the hype-and-speed culture that dominates tech. In this conversation, we talk about why most 3D printing startups fail (the hidden costs nobody tracks), how to know when to push through and when to walk away, the power of...
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20 And Building A Brand — Chancy Williams
The Jason Cavness Experience
Chancy Williams didn't know the difference between GSM and cotton blend six months ago. Now he's running his own streetwear brand, Majority, funded entirely out of a 9-to-5 job and a college class schedule. Chancy is 20, a double major in international business and marketing, and the son of one of my old Army buddies. We get into why he started a clothing brand before he had a real job, what happened when his first bulk order came back ruined, and why he thinks his generation needs to stop waiting for permission to start something. We also discuss: Why he chose sweatpants and hoodies as his...
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How He's Taking On a $2 Billion Software Giant — Keith McCall
The Jason Cavness Experience
Keith McCall is building a company that watches the Earth from above. Omniris pulls imagery from drones, satellites, and IoT sensors, overlays it on a map, and adds the one thing that makes data powerful time. Capture the same field or cell tower ten times across a year and you get a living database, a digital twin more useful than anything sitting in a spreadsheet. His network of 4,000 independent drone pilots has flown Walmart's headquarters, Amazon distribution centers, 11,000 Verizon cell towers, and solar farms around the world. Keith is the CEO of Omniris, along with the...
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Why Local Government Stops Improving — Brien Kennedy
The Jason Cavness Experience
Most elected officials face voters. Many local officials never face an opponent. Brien Kennedy left a career scaling e-commerce businesses at Amazon, Microsoft, Nuun Hydration, and SmartyPants Vitamins to work inside the Kitsap County Superior Court. What he saw was a system that people depend on during some of the hardest moments of their lives. But often cannot understand or navigate. Now he is running in only the third contested race for Kitsap County Clerk in 28 years. We also discuss: • Why uncontested elections create complacency • What a county clerk actually controls...
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Culture Is a Business Advantage Suleiny Altamirano
The Jason Cavness Experience
Preserving culture requires more than celebrating it. The traditions also need customers, economic opportunity, and a path to the next generation. Suleiny Altamirano, founder and CEO of Tizana Mexicana, shares how moving from Guerrero, Mexico, to Seattle inspired her to build a bridge between Mexican artisans and new markets. She explains why trust matters more than technology, how immigrant founders can build a new support system, and why social impact companies still need a sustainable business model. We also discuss: • Why immigrant founders need to create a new family of mentors,...
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Why Most Influencer Marketing Fails with Alex Shebar
The Jason Cavness Experience
Most brands do not have an influencer problem. They have a strategy problem. Alex Shebar, founder of NYC Social Club, explains why generic campaigns, rigid scripts, and oversized creator lists fail to generate meaningful results. He breaks down how brands can find creators who match their audience, test content without wasting their budget, and build smaller communities that actually care. We also discuss: • Why 10 engaged followers can be more valuable than 1,000 passive ones • How community managers keep online communities alive • Why brands should stop trying to reach everyone...
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Why Encryption Fails Under Pressure with Josh Thomas
The Jason Cavness Experience
The strongest encryption in the world cannot protect you when someone can force you to unlock your phone. Josh Thomas, founder of Deniable, explains why conventional mobile security ignores coercion and how plausible deniability changes the equation. He also shares a hard-earned rule for builders: decide what would make you kill a project before your identity, money, and emotions become attached to it. We also discuss: • Why institutions often capture problems instead of solving them • How incentives shape behavior inside nonprofits and the United Nations • Why every...
info_outlineBen King spent six years in the Army before starting over in the startup world as a Sales Development Representative. He brought discipline, leadership, and resilience, but still had to learn a new industry, prove himself in a new environment, and build his civilian career one sales conversation at a time.
Now at Loop8, Ben is helping companies move beyond AI hype and use automation and cloud technology to solve real business problems. This conversation explores what veterans bring to tech, what startup sales actually demands, and why successful AI adoption should begin with the mission not the tool.
We also discuss:
• Starting over as an SDR after leaving the Army
• Translating military experience into civilian value
• Why veterans are built for high-pressure sales environments
• The habits that create long-term sales success
• Building go-to-market systems inside a growing company
• Selling AI without exaggerating what it can do
• How Loop8 approaches AI, automation, and cloud infrastructure
• Why business outcomes matter more than flashy technology
Sponsor
This episode is sponsored by 2BAR Spirits, a Northwest grain-to-glass distillery with an all-female production team. The first Seattle distillery to produce bourbon, 2BAR Spirits creates approachable whiskey designed to bring people together.
2BAR Spirits also sponsored The Jason Cavness Experience Deep Tech Demo Day. https://www.2barspirits.com/
Ben's links
Ben King on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-king-013041148/
Email Ben: [email protected] Loop8: https://www.loop8.io
Cloudy with a Chance of Awesome podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/0ynfms8t8MZbLWrU6S5h4a?si=d93ab1af30e64e4b
Jason links
https://linktr.ee/jasoncavness