Sean Cunningham: Reaching Real People in a World Full of Bots
Release Date: 04/15/2026
Sean Cunningham: Reaching Real People in a World Full of Bots
The Cred Podcast
What does it really take to hold an industry accountable? In this episode of The Cred Podcast, host Mack McKelvey sits down with Sean Cunningham, President and CEO of the Video Advertising Bureau (VAB), for a candid conversation about the state of premium video, the battle for measurement transparency, and why the future of advertising depends on getting back to real humans. From the inside story of how the VAB took on Nielsen during COVID to why 54% of internet traffic being non-human should terrify every marketer, Sean makes the case that the advertising industry has been far too tolerant of...
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The Trust Knob: How AI Is Changing the Way Companies Make Decisions
The Cred Podcast
What if the most important decision your company makes this year isn't made by a human at all? In this episode of The Cred Podcast, Mack McKelvey sits down with serial entrepreneur Brian Kathman, CEO of OpsCanvas, to unpack one of the most underexplored frontiers in AI: decision memory. Brian has been building companies since 1999 — from the world's first transactional online bank to mobile messaging long before the iPhone existed — and now he's tackling the question keeping enterprise leaders up at night: when do we trust AI to make the call? Brian introduces the concept of the...
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Decisions Fail in the Gaps
The Cred Podcast
Decisions fail in the gaps, not the strategy. In this episode of The Cred Podcast, Denise Graziano (Founder and CEO of Graziano Associates) breaks down why smart teams still make costly decisions. It’s not a lack of data or intelligence. It’s misalignment, not thinking two steps ahead, or treating communication like an afterthought instead of a strategic tool. Denise has spent 30 years as a trusted advisor to CEOs, CFOs, and boards and she's watched the same pattern repeat itself: leadership teams who think they're aligned but aren't even defining the problem the same way. Meanwhile, speed...
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First Check Calls Game
The Cred Podcast
Most people think they’re not qualified to make investment decisions. Cheryl Kellond thinks that’s exactly the problem. A 3x founder, 3x Ironman, 4x mom, and CEO of PlayMoney, Cheryl is on a mission to open up early-stage investing to the people who actually understand the problems worth solving. In this episode, she challenges the outdated model of capital allocation and makes the case that the real barrier isn’t money, expertise, or access. It’s a system built for a world that no longer exists. At its core, this is a conversation about decision-making as a skill. Cheryl breaks down...
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Question the Question with Pam Scott & Di Tompkins
The Cred Podcast
Feel stuck on a decision? Try interrogating the question. Pam Scott and Di Tompkins have been solving hard problems together for decades, and their first move is almost always to question whether someone is solving the right problem. As co-founders of The Curious Company, they bring outside perspective to mission-driven leaders who've hit a wall: a different color to paint with, a reframed question, and the kind of honest conversation most organizations aren't having internally. On this episode of The Cred Podcast, Mack sits down with two genuinely curious women who listen for a living,...
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Lana Kerr: Lead with Conviction, Execute with Consensus
The Cred Podcast
In this episode of The Cred Podcast, Lana Kerr joins Mack McKelvey for a candid conversation about decision-making as a founder, CEO, and leader. From trusting instinct in the early stages of growth to learning when to slow down and bring in more voices, Lana reflects on how her approach has evolved over time. She talks about the difference between making business decisions and people decisions, the importance of starting with the desired outcome, and why culture fit is just as important as credentials. The result is a thoughtful look at what it really means to lead: making the call, owning...
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Making Decisions Like a Musician
The Cred Podcast
Bill Shafton spent nine years as the legal backbone of Grindr, navigating a Chinese acquisition, a national security divestiture, and a Wall Street IPO. In this episode, he breaks down his philosophy on decision-making: how research sets the boundaries, but instinct drives the performance. Tune in to learn how Bill operates in the gray areas, making high-risk decisions with incomplete data, and why “technical correctness” doesn’t shield you from reputational fallout. If compliance is the baseline, trust is the real metric. He also shares why the legal function is less like a gatekeeper...
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Why Consensus Is the Wrong Signal With Steven Rosenblatt
The Cred Podcast
In this episode of The Cred Podcast, Mack talks with Steven Rosenblatt, co-founder and General Partner at Oceans, about how decisions really get made when you’re building companies, backing founders, and choosing what to stand behind before the outcome is obvious. Steven reflects on the early mobile days, helping Apple launch iAd, and his time at Foursquare, where survival meant rethinking the business entirely. Those experiences now shape how he invests at Oceans: why it’s all about the people, how he evaluates founders, and why consensus can be dangerous in venture investing. More...
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Making Decisions in the Gray with Tess Michaels
The Cred Podcast
On this episode of The Cred Podcast, Tess Michaels, Founder and CEO of Clasp, joins Mack McKelvey to talk about making decisions while building a new category at the intersection of education, healthcare, and workforce retention, where there is no established playbook to follow. Tess breaks down how customer signals shape better decisions, why pattern recognition beats perfect data, and how learning when to say no is critical to scaling without distraction. Listen in on a sharp conversation on leadership, focus, and navigating the gray.
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Instinct, Ownership, and the Discipline of Decision-Making
The Cred Podcast
Rafat Ali doesn’t take notes. And he makes decisions on instinct. In this episode, the founder and CEO of Skift breaks down how he actually makes decisions as a global operator, committing to a choice, avoiding second-guessing, and never falling in love with a single option. He explains how visualization helps him pressure-test hires, products, and acquisitions, why early yellow flags almost always turn red, and the defining mistake early in his career when he sold his first company. Rafat looks for two signals when decisions are being made. First, is there a clear owner who will carry it...
info_outlineWhat does it really take to hold an industry accountable?
In this episode of The Cred Podcast, host Mack McKelvey sits down with Sean Cunningham, President and CEO of the Video Advertising Bureau (VAB), for a candid conversation about the state of premium video, the battle for measurement transparency, and why the future of advertising depends on getting back to real humans.
From the inside story of how the VAB took on Nielsen during COVID to why 54% of internet traffic being non-human should terrify every marketer, Sean makes the case that the advertising industry has been far too tolerant of opacity, bad behavior, and metrics of illusion.
The conversation covers the full spectrum of today's video landscape: why not all impressions are created equal, how direct-to-consumer brands have proven premium video is a full-funnel performance driver, and why the "death of linear" is a myth.
Sean also gives a preview of what the VAB will be bringing to Possible in a few weeks.