Building Startups in the AI Era Lessons from 30 Years of Venture Capital with Scott Kelly
OPEN Tech Talks: AI worth Talking| Artificial Intelligence |Tools & Tips
Release Date: 01/18/2026
Could Living Neurons Power the Future of AI with Ewelina Kurtys
OPEN Tech Talks: AI worth Talking| Artificial Intelligence |Tools & Tips
Over the last couple of years, most of my conversations around AI have been about capability. How fast models are improving. How agents are becoming more autonomous. How enterprises can adopt GenAI safely. How teams can redesign workflows around intelligence. But this week, I found myself thinking about something deeper. Not what AI can do. But what does AI cost? And I don’t just mean money. I mean energy. I mean infrastructure. I mean the hidden assumptions underneath the current AI boom. Because when we talk about the future of AI, most people immediately jump to models, chips, data...
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How Attackers Use AI And Why Your Defenses Might Still Fail with Adriel Desautels
OPEN Tech Talks: AI worth Talking| Artificial Intelligence |Tools & Tips
Episode # 183 Today’s Guest: Adriel Desautels, Founder & CEO, Netragard Adriel is a leader in cybersecurity with over 20 years of experience. Adriel founded Secure Network Operations and the SNOsoft Research Team, whose vulnerability research helped shape modern responsible disclosure practices. He later launched Netragard, pioneering Realistic Threat Penetration Testing, which he now call Red Teaming, and expanding into a broad range of security services. Website: X/Twitter: What Listeners Will Learn: Why “AI penetration testing” is often closer to...
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Why 95% of AI Pilots Fail and How to Be in the 5% with Mindaugas Maciulis
OPEN Tech Talks: AI worth Talking| Artificial Intelligence |Tools & Tips
Welcome to Open Tech Talks. Quick note before we start, thank you. The messages, the feedback, the “keep this practical” reminders… they’ve been incredibly helpful. Open Tech Talks has always been a weekly sandbox for technology insights, experimentation, and inspiration—with one objective: learn, test, and share what’s real. Now, a personal moment from this week. A few days ago, I sat with a business owner who said something that stuck with me: “AI is everywhere… but I don’t know where to start without breaking my business.” And that’s the truth for most companies,...
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AI Is Creating Technical Debt Faster Than You Think with Maxim Silaev
OPEN Tech Talks: AI worth Talking| Artificial Intelligence |Tools & Tips
This week, I’ve been thinking about something slightly uncomfortable. Last weekend, I was reviewing one of my older architecture diagrams from five years ago. A cloud-native migration plan I was deeply proud of at the time. It was clean. Structured. Scalable. And then I asked myself: If I were to rebuild this today in the era of generative AI… Would I build it the same way? The honest answer? No. Not because it was wrong. But because our assumptions have changed. Two years ago, AI was a feature. Today, AI is shaping architecture decisions. We’re not just designing systems anymore....
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Simplify Your Tech Stack and Scale Faster with Kara Williams
OPEN Tech Talks: AI worth Talking| Artificial Intelligence |Tools & Tips
Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Kara Williams 01:53 Kara's Coaching Journey and Entrepreneurial Background 03:20 The Importance of a Simplified Tech Stack 05:51 Common Mistakes in Tech Selection 07:09 Exploring AI in Business 08:16 Creating the Proof First GPT 10:47 Learning and Executing with AI 12:04 Common Challenges Faced by Entrepreneurs 13:50 Guiding New Entrepreneurs 14:59 Misconceptions About Low Ticket Offers 16:18 Refining Messaging and Offers 17:29 The Role of Automation in Business 18:34 Understanding Automation Needs 19:36 Testing Freebies and Building Relationships...
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Building Startups in the AI Era Lessons from 30 Years of Venture Capital with Scott Kelly
OPEN Tech Talks: AI worth Talking| Artificial Intelligence |Tools & Tips
Welcome back to Open Tech Talks, and thank you, genuinely, for the continued support, messages, and thoughtful feedback. This show has been running for years now, and what keeps it meaningful is the shared curiosity of this community. We’re in a very different phase of the AI journey. The conversation has clearly moved past “Can we build this?” Now it’s about “Should we build this?”, “Is this sustainable?”, and “Does this actually create value?” Over the last year, I’ve personally noticed something interesting while working with enterprises, founders, and investors: AI...
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Building AI Products That Users Actually Trust, Lessons from Angshuman Rudra
OPEN Tech Talks: AI worth Talking| Artificial Intelligence |Tools & Tips
January has a very particular energy. The holidays are behind us. The inbox is slowly filling up again. Calendars are waking up. And there’s always this short window, just a few quiet days, where it feels like everything could still go in a different direction. I’ve been thinking a lot during this pause. Over the last couple of years, AI and large language models have gone from experiments to expectations. What used to feel optional is now part of daily work, whether someone asked for it or not. And the biggest shift I’ve personally noticed isn’t technical. It’s psychological. People...
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How Generative AI Is Reshaping Fraud, Security, and Abuse Detection with Bobbie Chen
OPEN Tech Talks: AI worth Talking| Artificial Intelligence |Tools & Tips
In this episode of Open Tech Talks, host Kashif Manzoor sits down with Bobbie Chen, a product manager working at the intersection of fraud prevention, cybersecurity, and AI agent identification in Silicon Valley. As generative AI and large language models rapidly move from experimentation into real products, organizations are discovering a new reality. The same tools that make building software easier also make abuse, fraud, and attacks easier. Vibe coding, AI agents, and LLM-powered workflows are accelerating innovation, but they are also lowering the barrier for bad actors. This conversation...
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How Dyslexic Brains Can Supercharge AI Thinking with Prof. Russell Van Brocklin
OPEN Tech Talks: AI worth Talking| Artificial Intelligence |Tools & Tips
In this episode of Open Tech Talks, I sit down with Professor Russell Van Brocklin, a New York State Senate-funded researcher, known as “The Dyslexic Professor,” to unpack a very different way of thinking about AI, problem-solving, and dyslexia. Russell’s work sits at the intersection of cognitive enhancement and AI integration. He shows how an “overactive” front part of the dyslexic brain (word analysis and articulation) can be turned into a superpower not just for dyslexic learners, but for professionals and businesses working with AI. We talk about how his program took dyslexic...
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How to Build Your First AI Workflow
OPEN Tech Talks: AI worth Talking| Artificial Intelligence |Tools & Tips
In this week’s episode of Open Tech Talks, host Kashif Manzoor takes you through a convenient, real-world guide to building your first AI workflow, even if you are not technical. After last week’s conversation (Episode 175) with Rose G. Loops on Ethical AI, Human Safety & AI Identity Protection, this episode returns to the foundations of GenAI adoption for professionals and enterprise teams. It also continues the learning from Episode 173, How GenAI Is Changing Every Career. Most people know how to write a prompt. Very few know how to connect AI to their real work. This episode...
info_outlineWelcome back to Open Tech Talks, and thank you, genuinely, for the continued support, messages, and thoughtful feedback. This show has been running for years now, and what keeps it meaningful is the shared curiosity of this community.
We’re in a very different phase of the AI journey.
The conversation has clearly moved past “Can we build this?”
Now it’s about “Should we build this?”, “Is this sustainable?”, and “Does this actually create value?”
Over the last year, I’ve personally noticed something interesting while working with enterprises, founders, and investors: AI has lowered the cost of building but raised the cost of judgment.
It’s easier than ever to create products, prototypes, and even companies. But deciding what’s worth building, when to raise capital, and how to scale responsibly has become harder, not easier.
That’s why today’s conversation matters.
This episode is not about chasing trends or predicting the next AI unicorn.
It’s about long-term thinking, founder discipline, and understanding capital, timing, and execution in an AI-driven world.
Today’s guest has spent decades working across venture capital, startup growth, and exits through multiple technology cycles and brings a grounded perspective that’s especially valuable right now.
Let’s welcome Scott Kelly to Open Tech Talks.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Scott Kelly and His Ventures
02:00 The Transformative Impact of AI
04:03 Successful Investments and Entrepreneurial Journeys
05:53 Lessons for Entrepreneurs and Pitching Tips
10:06 Navigating the AI Landscape in Startups
11:52 Industry Applications of AI
14:54 Pitch Events and Investor Engagement
17:03 Investor Perspectives on New Technologies
19:52 Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs
Episode # 179
Today’s Guest:
Scott Kelly, Founder & CEO, Black Dog Venture Partners
He has been working on both sides, with entrepreneurs and investors alike, for more than three decades. Harnessing his innovative skills, vast experience training thousands of salespeople, and tapping into his vast network of investors.
- Website: Black Dog Venture Partners
- Youtube: VC FastPitch
What Listeners Will Learn:
- How AI is changing the economics of building and scaling startups
- Why many founders may not need venture capital as early as they think
- Lessons from past technology cycles that still apply in the GenAI era
- How investors evaluate AI-driven businesses beyond surface-level hype
- Why timing, discipline, and execution matter more than tools
- What founders often misunderstand about pitching, capital, and exits
- How AI lowers build costs but raises the importance of strategic judgment
Resources:
- Website: Black Dog Venture Partners
- YouTube: VC FastPitch