Start At Zero
Start at Zero is a conversation-first podcast about what it actually takes to modernize technology, build a business from scratch, and make sense of AI without the hype. Episodes range from focused 15-minute interviews with government leaders and tech founders to longer deep dives where I walk through what I'm building in real time - the AI agents, the automation stack, the hard lessons from 20 years of consulting.
The tone is direct and honest. I don't do scripted questions or softball setups. I want the story behind the story - what went wrong, what you'd do differently, what nobody in the room was willing to say. Guests should expect a conversation that feels like two people working through a real problem together, not a performance.
Topics include government technology, AI in the real world, entrepreneurship, consulting, procurement, and the messy intersection of all of them. Some episodes are interviews, some are just me thinking out loud about something I built or broke that week.
If you've got a real story - something you built, something that failed, a lesson that cost you - you'll fit right in here. I'll send a loose topic outline beforehand, but the best episodes happen when we go off-script.
Start At Zero
Why Your AI Pilot Will Fail (And What Actually Works Instead)
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Most government AI pilots don’t fail because the technology is bad. They fail because the problem was wrong, the data wasn’t ready, the demo lied, and no one defined what success actually meant.
In this Untangled episode, we break down why 90%+ of AI pilots never make it to production — and why flashy demos are often the biggest warning sign. Using real government examples, we explain the difference between AI theater and real operational value, why citizens ask messy questions that demos never show, and how agencies waste millions by buying solutions before understanding their workflows.
This conversation walks through the five most common AI failure points — wrong problem selection, dirty data, demo environments, lack of human oversight, and fake success metrics — and outlines a practical readiness framework agencies can use before spending a dollar.
AI isn’t magic. It’s software. And it only works when you treat it that way.
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