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PODCAST

The CTO Show with Mehmet Gonullu

Broadcasting from Dubai, The CTO Show with Mehmet explores the latest trends in technology, startups, and venture funding. Host Mehmet Gonullu leads insightful discussions with thought leaders, innovators, and entrepreneurs from diverse industries. From emerging technologies to startup investment strategies, the show provides a balanced view on navigating the evolving landscape of business and tech, helping listeners understand their profound impact on our world. mehmet@yassiventures.com

business entrepreneurship

All Episodes

00:30:00

#568 Beyond Silicon: Building the First Living...

The CTO Show with Mehmet Gonullu ·

2026/01/30

In this episode of The CTO Show with Mehmet, Mehmet sits down with Ewelina Kurtys, Strategic Advisor at FinalSpark, to explore one of the most radical frontiers in technology: biological computing powered by living neurons.FinalSpark is building next-generation processors using human neurons instead of silicon, aiming to solve AI’s biggest challenge: energy efficiency and scalability.From AI infrastructure to neuroscience, ethics, and commercialization, this conversation dives deep into what it

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00:38:18

#567 Engineering Creativity: Peadar Coyle on Scaling...

The CTO Show with Mehmet Gonullu ·

2026/01/26

In this episode of The CTO Show with Mehmet, Mehmet sits down with Peadar Coyle, Co-Founder and CTO of AudioStack, to explore how AI is transforming audio production from a creative craft into scalable infrastructure.Peadar shares how AudioStack built production-grade AI systems for media and brands worldwide, why audio is becoming a systems problem, and how founders and CTOs can balance speed, quality, and creativity in the age of generative AI.From programmatic advertising in the UAE to shipping

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00:41:57

#566 Scaling Trust in Logistics: David Soileau on AI,...

The CTO Show with Mehmet Gonullu ·

2026/01/23

In this episode of The CTO Show with Mehmet, Mehmet sits down with David Soileau, Co-Founder and CRO of Gophr, to explore how modern software, AI, and disciplined leadership are transforming industrial logistics.David shares his journey from the Marine Corps to building a nationwide on-demand delivery platform. He explains how Gophr pivoted during COVID and natural disasters, rebuilt its business model around accountability, and scaled with minimal overhead.The conversation dives deep into

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00:59:06

#565 Startups Are Chains, Not Ropes: Lessons from 70+...

The CTO Show with Mehmet Gonullu ·

2026/01/19

In this episode, Mehmet sits down with Andrew Ackerman, two-time founder, early-stage investor with 70+ investments, accelerator leader, entrepreneurship professor, and author of The Entrepreneur’s Odyssey.Andrew shares hard-earned insights from running accelerator programs, investing across decades, and coaching founders at their most fragile moments. The conversation dives deep into why startups fail, what truly separates winning founders, how coachability beats ego, and why storytelling is more

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00:54:00

#564 The Accessibility Advantage: Max Ivey on Why...

The CTO Show with Mehmet Gonullu ·

2026/01/16

In this episode of The CTO Show with Mehmet, I’m joined by Max Ivey, known as The Blind Blogger and a leading voice in digital accessibility.Max shares his remarkable journey from growing up in a family-run carnival business to becoming an accessibility advisor helping companies rethink how they design products, websites, and AI tools. We go deep into why accessibility is not a legal checkbox but a business, UX, and growth advantage, and why most modern AI tools are still failing real users.This

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00:40:29

#563 From Geology to AI: Ahmad Saleem on Building the...

The CTO Show with Mehmet Gonullu ·

2026/01/12

In this episode of The CTO Show with Mehmet, I’m joined by Ahmad Saleem, Founder and CEO of Podyssey.Ahmad’s journey is anything but linear. From working as a geologist in mining and natural resources to earning a PhD in economics, moving into private equity, and eventually founding an AI startup, his path reflects deep curiosity, resilience, and systems thinking.We dive into why podcast discovery is fundamentally broken, how AI and natural language processing can unlock the real value hidden inside

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00:48:20

#562 Agentic AI Is Not an Intern: Craig McLuckie on...

The CTO Show with Mehmet Gonullu ·

2026/01/09

Agentic AI is moving faster than enterprise readiness.Boards are pushing adoption. Teams are deploying agents at speed. But security, control, and operational discipline are lagging behind.In this episode, Mehmet sits down with Craig McLuckie, the co-creator of Kubernetes and founder of Stacklok, to unpack why most agentic AI initiatives break after the demo and what enterprises must do differently to make them durable, secure, and production-ready.From MCP and context engineering to eval-driven

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00:50:01

#561 Fall in Love With the Problem, Not the Product:...

The CTO Show with Mehmet Gonullu ·

2026/01/05

In this episode, Mehmet sits down with Ghazenfer Mansoor, Founder and CEO of Technology Rivers, to unpack why so many software products fail quietly and what actually separates ideas that ship and scale from those that die early.Drawing on two decades of experience and over 60 shipped applications, Ghazenfer shares hard-earned lessons on customer discovery, feature bloat, technical debt, AI with real ROI, and building system-powered businesses that scale sustainably, especially in regulated

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00:50:29

#560 Why DevOps Alone Is No Longer Enough: Michael...

The CTO Show with Mehmet Gonullu ·

2026/01/02

In this episode of The CTO Show with Mehmet, Mehmet sits down with Michael Ferranti, a seasoned tech executive and product leader at Unleash, to explore why DevOps alone can no longer meet the reliability, speed, and risk demands of modern software systems.From real-world outages at Google and Cloudflare to the rise of AI-driven delivery, this conversation introduces FeatureOps as the missing control plane that allows teams to move faster without breaking production.⸻👤 About the GuestMichael

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00:45:48

#559 AI Without the Black Box: Nat Natarajan on...

The CTO Show with Mehmet Gonullu ·

2025/12/29

In this episode, Mehmet Gonullu sits down with Nat Natarajan, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Product Officer at Globalization Partners, to explore what it really takes to deploy AI in highly regulated environments.From labor laws and compliance across dozens of countries to human-in-the-loop AI systems, Nat shares how Globalization Partners built explainable, trustworthy AI that enterprises can actually rely on. This is a grounded, operator-level conversation on moving beyond AI hype toward real

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00:40:38

#558 AI Is Easy to Build, Hard to Deploy: Data,...

The CTO Show with Mehmet Gonullu ·

2025/12/25

AI models are becoming commoditized, but deploying AI systems that deliver real ROI remains hard. In this episode, Mehmet sits down with Bryan Wood, Principal Architect at Snorkel AI, to unpack why data-centric AI, evaluation, and domain expertise are now the true differentiators.Bryan shares lessons from working with frontier AI labs and highly regulated enterprises, explains why most AI projects stall before production, and breaks down what it actually takes to deploy AI safely and at scale.⸻👤

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00:46:33

#557 The Shadow Audience Problem: Matt Zarracina on...

The CTO Show with Mehmet Gonullu ·

2025/12/23

Live events generate massive attention, yet most venues have no idea who is actually attending. In this episode, Mehmet Gonullu sits down with Matt Zarracina, CEO and Co-Founder of True Tickets, to unpack the hidden infrastructure problem behind ticketing, identity, and audience ownership.Matt shares how legacy ticketing systems optimized for transactions, not relationships, and why “shadow audiences” have become one of the biggest blind spots in live event tech. The conversation spans SaaS

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00:50:40

#556 The CFO’s New Mandate: Ahikam Kaufman on AI,...

The CTO Show with Mehmet Gonullu ·

2025/12/20

In this episode of The CTO Show with Mehmet, I’m joined by Ahikam Kaufman, Co-Founder and CEO of Safebooks.ai, a seasoned finance executive turned entrepreneur with deep experience across startups, public companies, and large-scale acquisitions.We explore why finance has lagged behind other functions in digital transformation, how AI is fundamentally reshaping financial governance, and why the modern CFO is becoming a transformation leader, not just a financial steward.This conversation goes beyond

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00:59:29

#555 From Silicon Valley to MENA Scale: Khaled Nazif...

The CTO Show with Mehmet Gonullu ·

2025/12/18

In this episode of The CTO Show with Mehmet, I sit down with Khaled Nazif, COO of DSquares, one of the most influential yet quietly powerful enterprise loyalty platforms in the MENA region.Khaled shares his journey from Stanford and Silicon Valley back to the region, where he helped scale DSquares into a 150M+ end-user platform serving banks, telcos, governments, and large enterprises across 16 countries.We go deep into what loyalty really means today, why most companies still misunderstand it, how

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00:45:46

#554 Securing the AI Era: Alex Schlager on Why AI...

The CTO Show with Mehmet Gonullu ·

2025/12/16

In this episode of The CTO Show with Mehmet, I’m joined by Alex Schlager, Founder and CEO of AIceberg, a company operating at the intersection of AI, cybersecurity, and explainability.We dive deep into why AI agents fundamentally change enterprise risk, how shadow AI is spreading across organizations, and why monitoring black-box models with other black boxes is a dangerous mistake.Alex explains how explainable machine learning can provide the observability, safety, and security enterprises

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00:46:33

#553 Raising Capital Without Illusions: Daniel Nikic...

The CTO Show with Mehmet Gonullu ·

2025/12/13

Raising capital looks easy from the outside. In reality, it is one of the most misunderstood parts of building a startup.In this episode, Mehmet sits down with Daniel Nikic, a global investment researcher who has analyzed over 15,000 companies across the US, Europe, and the Middle East. Together, they unpack the hard truths founders need to understand about fundraising, investor psychology, market geography, and why most rounds fail long before the first term sheet.This is a grounded, no-hype

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00:53:21

#552 From Solo Founder to YC Investor: Gabriel...

The CTO Show with Mehmet Gonullu ·

2025/12/11

In this episode, Gabriel Jarrosson, founder and managing partner at Lobster Capital, breaks down what truly drives breakout startups inside the world’s most competitive ecosystem.Before becoming a YC-focused investor, Gabriel built seven startups, failed four, and bootstrapped one to one million ARR alone — no co-founder, no employees, no AI.Today he invests exclusively in YC companies and shares how he evaluates founders, why early traction beats everything, how YC creates unstoppable momentum, and

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00:43:55

#551 How to Validate Anything: Kingsley Maunder’s...

The CTO Show with Mehmet Gonullu ·

2025/12/09

In this episode, Kingsley Maunder breaks down one of the most overlooked aspects of startup building: proper validation. With over two decades in the startup ecosystem, building products used by Disney, EA Sports, Snap, and more, Kingsley shares the hard-won lessons behind his framework, The SALT Test.We explore how founders can turn raw ideas into validated products, avoid the assumption trap, distinguish noise from real traction, and leverage AI to accelerate product discovery. This conversation

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01:02:28

#550 From Zero to a Million-Dollar Month: How Colin...

The CTO Show with Mehmet Gonullu ·

2025/12/06

In this conversation, Colin opens the curtain on how Sheets & Giggles became a breakout DTC success by doing things differently: selling before building, leaning into humor, making bold brand decisions, and prioritizing community and impact over hype.This episode is packed with practical lessons for founders navigating uncertainty, fundraising, pricing strategy, brand identity, and the deeper personal journey behind entrepreneurship.About the GuestColin McIntosh is the founder of Sheets &

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01:05:04

#549 Why Small Teams Win: Mark Donnigan on GTM,...

The CTO Show with Mehmet Gonullu ·

2025/12/04

Mark Donnigan has spent decades helping deep tech and video technology startups translate complex products into commercial traction. In this conversation, we cover why early stage companies must stay lean, how to diagnose GTM confusion, and what AI first marketing looks like in practice.We also dig into the new buyer journey in B2B, why content is a serious competitive advantage, and why founder led marketing is becoming non negotiable for technical startups.⸻👤 About Mark DonniganMark Donnigan is a

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568 results

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