x

75% of people globally want unbiased news (Pew Research) but are concerned they're not getting that.

Get balanced coverage with Symby. See how stories are covered across diverse outlets and spot when one side covers a story the other skips.

PODCAST

The Forge 🔥 of Unicorns - by Michele Brissoni

Michele Brissoni

Welcome to The Forge 🔥 of Unicorns — the podcast where digital evolution meets elite performance. 🚀I’m Michele Brissoni (Mike) — Tech Advisor, Fractional CTO, and Board-Level Strategist.Over the past two decades, I’ve invented models and frameworks that have reshaped how organizations evolve in the software era:BOKaRy 📈 — our latest innovation, a Behavioral-OKR governance framework bridging vision, behavior, and delivery to generate exceptional ROI for boards, CEOs, and investors.SW Craftsmanship

technology business news

All Episodes

55:26

🎙️ EP80 - The AI Coding Illusion: Why Speed Without...

The Forge 🔥 of Unicorns - by Michele Brissoni ·

2025/11/18

In this episode, Michele (Mike) Brissoni explores the challenges and realities of software development in the age of AI. He discusses the historical context of coding productivity, the impact of Agile and DevOps methodologies, and the effects of remote work on developer efficiency. Brissoni emphasizes the importance of fundamentals over tools, highlighting the silent killers of productivity such as multitasking and environmental noise. He uses the automotive industry as a case study to illustrate

en

1:07:46

🎙️ EP79 - How to build the 1% Elite Developers!

The Forge 🔥 of Unicorns - by Michele Brissoni ·

2025/11/11

Your $10M AI investment produces garbage code because you hired mediocre, trained badly, and blamed developers when production burned. Not their fault. Yours. This episode explores how leadership and organizational behavior shape software engineering teams—and why understanding the dynamics between teamwork, coding discipline, and behavioral transformation determines whether your software development succeeds or fails.I reveal the Software Craftsmanship Dojo, the behavioral transformation system

en

51:57

🎙️ EP78 - The 1% Problem | Why AI Can't Save Your...

The Forge 🔥 of Unicorns - by Michele Brissoni ·

2025/11/04

Three years after ChatGPT's release, $2.5 trillion wasted in 2024 alone. Forecast for 2027? $4 trillion. Meanwhile, 38% burnout rate, 77% disengaged workforce, and 90% failure rate on digital transformations.After 77 episodes analyzing 130 people who built 52 unicorns, one pattern emerged: The bottleneck isn't AI, Agile, or capital. It's the 1% problem—the extreme scarcity of people capable of executing at elite level.This episode is different. No guest. Just me and one year of brutal research

en

58:00

#77 - The $34 Billion SECRET VCs Don't Want You To Know

The Forge 🔥 of Unicorns - by Michele Brissoni ·

2025/10/28

Licensing beats equity 10x. Fabio Lettieri (Founder, Artivium | Partner, TLN) reveals how €2M turns into €100M in 24 months through royalty-based partnerships instead of ownership dilution, why Europe's 10x better engineers stay underfunded, and the $34B empire that makes nothing.----🎙️ Episode Highlights:After 27 episodes with 130+ guests who backed 52 unicorns, one pattern emerged: the capital allocation system is fundamentally backwards. Europe has world-class engineering talent but

en

1:21:56

🎙️ EP76 - Karmapreneurship in the AI-era

The Forge 🔥 of Unicorns - by Michele Brissoni ·

2025/10/21

Philosophy shapes AI future through karmapreneurship and soft skills revealed by Craig Weiss (Patent Attorney turned Unicorn CEO turned Managing Partner Flagstaff Venture) on execution curiosity mentorship and AI human gap.🎙️ Episode Highlights:Craig Weiss shares his journey from patent attorney to building Enjoy (unicorn, $1B valuation) to venture capital investor, revealing why philosophy and karmapreneurship matter more than ever in the AI era.The AI Human Gap:- AI amplifies organizational

en

1:26:10

🎙️ EP75 - Are Your Developers Ready for AI? The David...

The Forge 🔥 of Unicorns - by Michele Brissoni ·

2025/10/14

Spitch.AI beats tech giants through customer-centric collaborative AI and cultural readiness. Pier Giorgio Vittori (CEO US division) reveals gradual adoption framework, employee satisfaction foundation, and ethical business practices that turn David into Goliath-killer in AI era.🎙️ Episode Highlights:Spitch.AI was founded in 2014, expanding from Switzerland to US, UK, and Italy. Instead of out-of-box solutions, they compete through deep customization matching customer needs and local

en

56:47

🎙️E74 - Why Only Soldier-Minded Teams Become Unicorns

The Forge 🔥 of Unicorns - by Michele Brissoni ·

2025/10/07

Ever wonder how top tech leaders foster exceptional team environments? This Forge of Unicorns podcast episode dives deep into the secrets of high-performing teams and engineering excellence. Is leadership coaching the key to preventing burnout and cultivating a motivational workplace where innovative software solutions thrive? Or is the secret recipe of success the relentless pursuit of excellence? This is your #ai time life saver, don't miss it!⸻In this episode of Forge 🔥 of Unicorns, Michele

en

56:41

🎙️ EP73 - AI Won’t Fix Us. It Amplifies Us!

The Forge 🔥 of Unicorns - by Michele Brissoni ·

2025/09/30

In this episode of Forge of Unicorns – In the Head of a CEO, the host Michele Brissoni sits down with Stéphan Donzé, Founder & CEO of AODocs, to unpack one of the most uncomfortable truths of our time: AI doesn’t save you. It multiplies what you already are.Stéphan’s journey is unique — a brilliant software engineer who became a CEO, leading a SaaS company trusted in the most critical environments (data centers, aviation, energy). He knows both sides: writing production code and scaling

en

1:24:25

🎙️ EP72 - Escaping the Industry Black Hole 🚀

The Forge 🔥 of Unicorns - by Michele Brissoni ·

2025/09/23

Unicorns are going extinct. In 2015 there were 124 new unicorns. In the last 3 years? Barely 17.At the same time, trillions of dollars have been poured into AI, sold as the golden age of innovation. But here’s the paradox: if AI is so transformative, why are unicorns disappearing?In this episode of The Forge of Unicorns, Michele Brissoni sits down with Paul O’Brien — Startup Economist, venture capitalist, and founder of MediaTech Ventures — to expose why accelerators are failing, how capital

en

51:57

🎙️ EP71 - Why Running a Company on Science Prevents...

The Forge 🔥 of Unicorns - by Michele Brissoni ·

2025/09/16

Why is software still the Wild West—with no universal quality standards?In this episode of Forge of Unicorns, 🎙️ Noël Bauza (CEO of Zei) reveals why organizations are running on systems with zero agreed measures of quality, and how the scientific method gives leaders the clarity to evolve with confidence.🚨 Agile frameworks and AI buzzwords aren’t saving companies from failure.Instead, CEOs are betting their futures on software with no safety net—flying blind on vanity metrics, customer reviews, or

en

1:08:14

🎙️ EP70 - Can Ethical Investing Outlast Unicorns?

The Forge 🔥 of Unicorns - by Michele Brissoni ·

2025/09/09

Unicorns are dying. Cockroaches creep us out. The future belongs to Camel Startups: resilient, human-centric, and engineered to survive.In this episode of Forge of Unicorns, host Michele “Mike” Brissoni sits down with Umar Munshi, CEO of HasanVC, to explore how ethical investing, halal venture capital, and the venture studio model are reshaping the future of entrepreneurship.🌍 What You’ll Learn in This Episode✔️ Why 99% of Unicorns fail — and how Camels survive harsh conditions.✔️ How ethical and

en

1:12:56

🎙️ EP69 - What If a Diesel Mechanic Just Outbuilt...

The Forge 🔥 of Unicorns - by Michele Brissoni ·

2025/09/02

Listen to Tyler Robertson's inspiring entrepreneur story of building a $100 million business from the ground up. This motivational podcast episode covers everything from how to start a business to insights on heavy duty truck scanner and truck diagnostic tool. Hear how he achieved success through hard work and determination and his journey in entrepreneurship.---What if a diesel mechanic just outbuilt your tech org?This episode of Forge of Unicorns reveals how Tyler Robertson turned a simple

en

1:03:49

🎙️ EP68 - Software Venture Capital Is Broken

The Forge 🔥 of Unicorns - by Michele Brissoni ·

2025/07/22

The $30B Mistake: Why Startups Fail and Investors Sleepwalk Through It💥 Massimiliano Sulpizi exposes what’s broken in **venture capital** and offers a cure: **Equity Match**, a platform blending **AI**, mentorship, and real founder support. Discover how he's teaching startups to build, not just pitch, in a world where 97.5% still fail.---🧠 Executive Summary:This world is sick.Startups are collapsing. Founders are burning out. Investors are flying blind.And no one is asking the question that

en

57:07

🎙️ EP67 - How Do I Evolve My Company Without Losing...

The Forge 🔥 of Unicorns - by Michele Brissoni ·

2025/07/15

Succession isn’t just an HBO drama.It’s real. It’s messy. And when it happens inside a high-growth SaaS company, it can break everything.In this raw, unfiltered episode of Forge of Unicorns, we sit down with 🇫🇷 Adrien Salvat, CEO of WebInterpret to launch our brand-new format:🎙️ “𝗜𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗛𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝗮 𝗖𝗘𝗢”💥 What’s the story?Adrien didn’t just survive a founder exit.He rebuilt the company — culturally, structurally, and emotionally — without losing his people.And he did it while staring

en

54:42

🎙️ EP66 - The $1M AI Mercenary Problem

The Forge 🔥 of Unicorns - by Michele Brissoni ·

2025/07/08

💥 Your tech budget is burning—and hiring hype can kill your culture.Here’s the brutal truth:Boards are shelling out $1M+ to AI engineers—none of whom are scientists in the classical senseMeta’s Superintelligence Lab just dangled $100M–$300M packages for top AI talent, while tens of thousands of good people got laid offWorse: Investors are funding AI hires not to build software, but to create products that enable layoffs—fueling a toxic, nonsensical cycleIn this eye-opening episode, Michele Brissoni

en

1:06:19

🎙️ EP65 - Vibe Coding: Beauty or Beast?

The Forge 🔥 of Unicorns - by Michele Brissoni ·

2025/07/01

AI was supposed to help us build organizations faster.Instead, it’s flooding the market with fragile MVPs and founders who lack the knowledge to scale.Welcome to Episode 65 of Forge of Unicorns, where illusions shatter and the ugly truths of software engineering are exposed.🎧 This week: Most Capital founders Kamila Michalkiewicz and Ágúst Berg Arnarsson join us to unpack the real risks behind AI-fueled hype in startups and web3 organizations.--- 🔍 What You’ll Learn:• Why most AI-generated MVPs are

en

56:46

🎙️E64 - AI, Code, Care... When organizations stop...

The Forge 🔥 of Unicorns - by Michele Brissoni ·

2025/06/24

🤔 Startups pitch AI like magic. But what happens when vibe-coded prototypes crash in production?👉 Who’s inspecting the code, not just the pitch deck?In this Forge of Unicorns episode, Dr. Jeremy Krell—Managing Partner at Revere Partners—reveals how real VCs assess risk in a post-hype market. With 40% of Revere’s portfolio in software, Jeremy’s team doesn’t just bet on the founder—they inspect the architecture, the codebase, and the clinical impact.From the operating room to the terminal, Mike

en

1:24:02

🎙️ EP63 - Is the AI bubble coming? And if so… who do...

The Forge 🔥 of Unicorns - by Michele Brissoni ·

2025/06/10

🤔 Investors are pouring billions into AI. But what if this is dot-com bubble 2.0?👉 Who will spot the real risks — hidden inside the code, and inside the culture?In this Forge of Unicorns episode, Maria de la Puente, one of the most respected investor advisors, reveals why today’s boards must evolve fast — or risk flying blind.From the boardroom to the engineering floor, Mike & Maria expose the trust gaps no spreadsheet can fix:👉 Why trusted TECH advisors and NEDs are now critical to

en

1:00:08

🎙️ EP62 - The Common Secret Behind Mining ⛏️, F1 🏎️ &...

The Forge 🔥 of Unicorns - by Michele Brissoni ·

2025/06/03

🤔 Why did Mining ⛏️, Formula 1 🏎️, and MotoGP 🏍️ evolve—and Software didn’t?In this episode of Forge of Unicorns, Nicolás Bañados, Managing Partner at Galgo Capital, helps us uncover the behavioral system behind industries that evolved from danger to precision—while the software world is still fighting over frameworks and labels.From mines to pitlanes, Mike draws the powerful parallel:In all those environments, people arrive as apprentices—and evolve into high-performance professionals through

en

1:02:34

🎙️ EP61 - The Hidden CEO Hiring Trap: Why Only 1 in...

The Forge 🔥 of Unicorns - by Michele Brissoni ·

2025/05/27

Are you prepared for the real risks of CEO succession, or any other CXO hiring? In this episode of Forge of Unicorns, investor and behavioral screening expert Ron Ondechek reveals the hidden traps that boardrooms, PE/VC firms, and founders face every time a new CEO is chosen. Every time a new leader joins your organization. The risks connected with casual HR hiring by pedigree and resume.🔑 What you’ll learn:Why over 4,000 CEO candidates fail each year—and what makes the “1” stand outThe behavioral

en

73 results

Similar Podcasts

Lead With AI

Tamara Nall

Linux in the Ham Shack

Black Sparrow Media

Data Engineering Podcast

Tobias Macey

Eye On A.I.

Craig S. Smith

Reflections

Livewire Labs