How I AI

Open Source, Autonomy, and AI’s Next Wave (Live from Miami AI Summit)

• Brooke Gramer • Season 1 • Episode 41

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In this special episode of How I AI, I’m live from Miami during Art Basel week, reporting from the Tech Basel Miami AI Summit in partnership with eMerge Americas.

This episode is a field report from the ground, pulling together the biggest themes shaping AI as we move into 2026, from open source infrastructure and autonomous systems to trust, storytelling, and real-world execution.

I start by sharing my key takeaways from the opening and closing keynote talks. The opening keynote focused on why the future of AI is open source, featuring insights from Clem Delangue of Hugging Face alongside leaders shaping the next generation of AI infrastructure. The closing keynote featured Cathie Wood, Founder, CEO, and CIO of ARK Invest, who mapped the exponential future ahead, including the rapid rise of autonomous vehicles and autonomous systems. 

From there, I share two live sit-down interviews recorded at the summit.

First, I sit down with Sherrell Dorsey, host of TED Tech, to talk about narrative as strategy, why trust matters more than raw computing power, and how storytelling remains the most powerful technology we have as AI becomes more ubiquitous.

Then, I’m joined by Bora Celenk, Co-Founder and CEO of 4A Labs, who brings the conversation back to execution. We talk about startup survival, validating ideas faster with AI, why founders must avoid becoming “just a feature,” and how small teams can ship real products in a rapidly changing landscape.

This episode connects the macro future of AI with the human realities of building, adapting, and staying relevant in 2026 and beyond.


🔥 Topics we cover:

  • Why open source is infrastructure, not ideology
  • How power, access, and policy are shaped by who controls AI models
  • The rise of autonomous vehicles as a signal of broader AI operational shifts
  • Why narrative and trust outperform raw computing power
  • What it means to not become “just a feature” in the AI economy
  • How startups and solopreneurs can validate ideas faster with AI

🔗 Connect & Learn More:

🎙 Want event coverage or a moderator in Miami?

If you’re hosting a conference, panel, or founder conversation and want thoughtful event coverage or a moderator who can translate complex tech into human conversations, reach out. This is my world.


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"How I AI" is a concept and podcast series created and produced by Brooke Gramer of EmpowerFlow Strategies LLC. All rights reserved.

Brooke:

Welcome to How I AI the podcast featuring real people, real stories, and real AI in action. I'm Brooke Gramer, your host and guide on this journey into the real world impact of artificial intelligence. For over 15 years, I've worked in creative marketing events and business strategy, wearing all the hats. I know the struggle of trying to scale and manage all things without burning out, but here's the game changer, AI. This isn't just a podcast. How I AI is a community, a space where curious minds like you come together, share ideas, and I'll also bring you exclusive discounts, and insider resources, because AI isn't just a trend, it's a shift, and the sooner we embrace it, the more freedom, creativity, and opportunities will unlock.​Today's episode is a special one, and it's basically a field report from Miami in the middle of Art Basel week at the Tech Basel Miami AI Summit. If you've never been in Miami during Art Basel week, just imagine creative chaos, glossy everything, people flying in from everywhere, and then you drop a full blown AI summit into the middle of it. This is exactly what happened this past December, and it was electric. This summit was in partnership with eMerge Americas, and I had the chance to do what I love most, be on the ground, listen to the smartest people in the room, pull out the golden nuggets. And then sit down with some of the speakers, one-to-one. You're going to hear two massive themes colliding during this episode. One is the open source conversation, which is a really powerful one. Who gets to build? Who gets access? Who controls policy? The other is the macro future view where AI isn't one trend, it is the layer that touches everything from productivity to energy to markets. So here's how today's episode is going to flow. First, I'm gonna give you my personal highlights from the opening and closing keynote talks, the opening talk featured Clem from Hugging Face. The Closing Talk, featured Cathie Wood from Ark Invest. Then you're going to hear my sit down interviews from the summit. I sat down with Sherrell Dorsey, host of TED Tech and also Bora Celenk, co-founder and CEO of 4A Labs. I also wanna quickly share the important plug that eMerge Americas is coming to Miami, April 22nd to 24th of this 2026. And if you're building in tech, AI, startups or just trying to stay close to the future, it's one tech expo you wanna keep on your radar. All right, let's dive in. I've been to a lot of conferences. Some are fluff, some are pure pitch fest energy, and then there's ones where you could really feel the signal. This one had signal. The Miami AI Summit felt highly curated, like the organizers were intentionally trying to create collision points between founders, investors, builders, and people who actually ship things, not just to talk about them. And that matters because AI is now one of those topics where you can hear the same recycled takes a thousand times and still walk away with nothing useful. I went into this summit wanting something simple to understand, where are we actually going and how do normal humans and small teams position themselves without getting steamrolled. So let's talk about the opening keynote. It was highlighting that the future is open source. The keynote featured Leon Kuperman, CTO of Cast AI, Clem, the founder of Hugging Face and Sherelle Dorsey, moderated from TED Tech. Clem came in with a message that I only think is getting more true by the moment the future of AI is open, the future of innovation is open, the future of leverage is open. And I wanna slow that down because open source has become one of those phrases that people throw around like, oh yeah, open source, community, democratization, and then they move on. But this keynote was pointing to a powerful shift, and here are some of the ideas that really stuck with me the most. One is that open source is not ideology, it's infrastructure. Open source is how ecosystems scale it's how you get millions of people improving something parallel. It is how you get velocity without needing one company to be the single brain and bottleneck for progress. The second key point was the people building the future are not waiting for permission. This is one of the undercurrents I felt in the whole room. There's this quiet confidence in builders who are like, cool, we're just gonna go test fine tune, remix and ship. Open communities create that energy because the default is participation, not gatekeeping. The third key point was open source changes who gets to compete. This is the part I think conscious entrepreneurs and small teams need to understand deeply. When AI capability is locked behind a few companies, your ability to innovate is basically rented. Your pricing, your access, your features, your limitations, they're all determined by someone else's business decisions. When AI capability is increasingly open, your ability to innovate becomes more owned. For instance, if you're using chat GPT or doing AI with APIs, you don't really control it. It's not really, yours. They also made the key point that these few companies will ultimately control the policies. This is why open ecosystems matter if only a handful of companies own the models. They influence access safety rules, and what"allowed" even means. This conversation was essentially pointing to a world where smaller teams can build powerful things. They mentioned the future is built by communities, not castles. And the secret sauce becomes less about hoarding access and more about execution, product design, distribution, and trust. So if you're building anything with ai, pay attention to the open ecosystems. That's where speed, talent, and experimentation concentrate. And for the non-technical listeners, I want to make this practical. Here's what"the future is open source" can mean for you without needing to code. We're gonna be seeing more affordable tools, more niche tools built for specific industries. You'll see AI move closer to personal devices, smaller models, more privacy aware workflows. Clem gave the really funny example on how, he didn't want his robot in his home to be connected to anything not local. Making sure that anything with the camera running around in his house, was gonna be local. I thought that was like a really interesting point and cool to hear that he already adapted into having robotics within his home. So the final thought, being open source isn't a trend. It's the backbone that determines who gets to build, who gets to compete, and who gets locked out. Which leads me to the next conversation I want to share, which was the closing keynote of the AI Summit, which was basically the macro level, big picture version of here's where all of this is going. This closing talk highlighted Cathie Wood and the exponential future we're headed towards. Cathie Wood is the founder and CEO and CIO at Arc Invest. And whatever you think about investing markets or predictions, you cannot deny that she is a clear thematic thinker. She's looking at the world like a chess board of converging technologies, ai, robotics, autonomous systems, energy innovation, blockchain, all of it. And she's trying to name what happens when multiple exponential curves stack upon each other. And one of the biggest themes she shared was the rise of autonomous vehicles and autonomous systems overall and how quickly that adoption curve can move once it hits the right inflection point. Here's why this matters. Even if you don't care about automatic cars driving you around. Automatic vehicles are a symbol of something bigger. The fact that machines are perceiving the world, they're making decisions in real time, they're coordinating at scale. They're operating in messy physical environments. We just got Waymo here in Miami, and I think it's incredible that they're able to drive on the streets of Miami. So when Cathie talks about autonomous vehicles, she's not just talking about transportation. She's talking about the shift from AI as a chat tool to AI as an operational layer in the real world, and that's the moment where society changes fast. As she stated, we are moving from linear change to exponential change. What I personally loved about her closing talk was that she wasn't presenting this as science fiction. It was very matter of fact, like this is what happens when cost curves drop and capability rises, and she touched on the uncomfortable truth that comes with exponential tech. The transition can feel chaotic because when an industry flips, it's not just new winners, it's new job categories, new consumer expectations, new safety concerns, new regulations, new ethical debates and new cultural norms. So here are my top three golden nuggets from this closing keynote featuring Cathie Wood. Number one is disruption is not slowing down if you are waiting for AI to settle or the bubble to burst, you might be waiting in the same way people waited for the internet to settle. Number two was the most important skill is adaptation with discernment. Not chasing hype, not rejecting change. Learning how to test, integrate and pivot without losing your identity. And number three is autonomy is coming to more than vehicles. It's coming to workflows, operations, customer service, logistics, content pipelines, research, education, healthcare, different speed, different risk, but same direction. One of my favorite quotes from this talk was, we're in a productivity driven boom. This is your 2026 bridge. We're shifting into a world where the real winners are the ones who translate productivity gains into new offers, new companies, and new advantage. So there you have it, my key takeaways, you've got the macro open source, exponential adoption, autonomous systems, and the real shift from AI as novelty to AI as infrastructure. Which now leads me to the live interviews I recorded at the summit because they take these big themes and bring them back down to the human scale. First, you're going to hear my sit down conversation with Sherrell Dorsey, who hosts TED Tech, and I love talking with her because she has this rare combination of being sharp, grounded, and deeply aware of narrative and how story is strategy. Because we're entering an AI era where the novelty of AI is wearing off, people are getting fatigue. Trusts matters more than ever. And the key differentiator is going to be who can connect technology to a real human problem, and a real why. And in closing, you'll hear my conversation with Bora Celenk. He's the co-founder and CEO of four A labs. And this one is for anyone building in startups or anyone trying to ship anything with a small team. Bora is deep in the reality of execution, and what I appreciated is he brought it back to the fundamentals of validating your idea, getting to market faster and using whatever tools you need to do so. As we jump into these next two interviews, if you haven't noticed, I love attending conferences and listening in on panels and moderating some of my own here in Miami. If you ever want coverage or need someone to help support your panel curation or moderate a talk, don't hesitate to reach out to me. All right. Here's my conversation with Sherrell. Sherrell, thank you so much for being here. Welcome to How I AI. Yes. Thank you for having me. We're here live at Miami AI Tech Summit event at the Mayfair in Coconut Grove. It's a beautiful Florida winter day.

Sherrell:

It is a beautiful Florida winter day. I got in from New York City last night, so I am appreciating all this weather and this has just been such an exciting day to be a part of.

Brooke:

Absolutely. I just got to an incredible talk that you moderated, and I'm excited to host you here and dig more about your work into ai. I read that you had your own media company. Yeah. And then you did a pivot into tech. Tell me all about that.

Sherrell:

Yeah, absolutely. I will say that I have been floating between tech and storytelling and media and journalism for pretty much my entire life and career. I grew up in Seattle, Washington, which was okay. Tech Central. Right. And I, I learned how to code in high school. Wow. I called myself a Microsoft kid. I worked at Microsoft over the summers in high school, which was really cool. And, um, and so technology has always been a big, significant part of my idea around. How we create ecosystems and startup cultures, that, you know, really spark innovation. And my media company, The Plug which got acquired in 2023, uh, hyper-focused on, technology and business leaders outside of your traditional Silicon Valley, you know, motley crew of of usual folks that we were always kind of talking about. And from the tech side of things I built out data products that really kind of dive deep into innovation trends happening, um, in diverse communities, uh, when it comes to innovation. And so, you know, the idea was leveraging media to really inspire cities and communities that typically aren't part of the conversation of innovation, but inspiring to think about what could I create? How do I build something out of nothing? And what are the key core principles and opportunities that might exist that I can participate in?

Brooke:

Have you always been a strong proponent of amplifying local communities? What really led your passion that way?

Sherrell:

Yeah, I mean, I think I was really fortunate in that, you know, every summer in high school, like I was taking the bus to one of the world's most innovative campuses. I remember being 15 years old, this is like back in the day as like dial up internet started to transition, right? And so I'm dating myself a bit. But having this experience of being able to see like a smart home features, right? This is like early AI days. Microsoft had a smart home that we would get a chance to tour and kind of learn about, oh, like you can use your voice activation to ask the shades to come down in the house, right? Mm-hmm. Or, um, you can put flower on the counter and the counter will tell you recipes for cookies. So cool. Yeah, so this was like circa 2003, 2004. Here are all the possibilities that technology can create. I was super fortunate coming from an inner city, coming from a community that was very expansive, very diverse, and I understood how fortunate I was to have this access. Mm-hmm. And so I think that for folks like myself, for people who I know are like first generation Americans, um, and really just coming from these amazing and unique families that you know, made a decision to seek better opportunities. You know, I'm seeing them like now as executives at some of the big tech companies, right? Yeah. And just the fact that they were able to tap into innovation and tap into technology. It chartered a distinctive and a very lucrative path for them. And just imagine if everyone has access to that and can activate. An idea or be part of, you know, technical communities where they can build something and maybe that leads them to a great career or leads them to a scholarship for education.

Brooke:

That's beautiful because when I started my career, I had to move, you know? 2000 miles to Los Angeles to make it an entertainment. Mm-hmm. And those that grew up in LA had such an advantage. Yeah. They interned very young and went to school with people and had these opportunities. So I love what you're saying about you don't have to move. Yeah. This will be in your local community and how important that is.

Sherrell:

Yeah. I mean, you can leverage your, your local resources.

Brooke:

Yeah.

Sherrell:

You know, whether it's classes at community college, right? Um, there's online certification programs. I think there's hubs and communities and even companies that sometimes host gatherings or information sessions and you can really take advantage and, create opportunity for yourself. You know what I think, as you and I know, like in media as well, like. Just being able to have a phone, right. A smartphone and a platform you can create and tell stories that are unique to you and really leverage that within your career to attract opportunities. And you don't always have to again, you know, leave and move. And many of us have done that, right? I left and went to New York City. Yeah. And, I think that. We just have to be open to the world is so accessible to us now, right? We have all the tools, and I think that was one of the parts of the conversation, uh, today on the panel is that, hey, if we can create these open source tools, there's opportunity for everyone to kind of level the playing field. Mm-hmm.

Brooke:

So take me back to that narrative and storytelling, the true art of what it is you do today as a TED Tech host. Yeah. Yeah. And really amplifying these stories. I see myself so much in your work. It's what I'm trying to do with How I AI is really, it's not how to ai, it's people at the forefront and how they're using AI as an opportunity to expand listeners and see themselves in that person. Yeah, I love that. How do you translate complex tech into narrative arcs.

Sherrell:

Yeah. I try to relate to, I always call it time at the kitchen table, right? Yes. The kitchen tables where we have our conversations, we eat together, we break bread together. We have just, important dialogue between young and, you know, more mature and seasoned elders in our families and within our communities. And you know, as host of the Ted Tech podcast I get the privilege of watching and reviewing all these incredible talks with these amazing experts and thinkers and engineers and people with all these great degrees that I can't even like pronounce some of the work that they do, but I get to tell very intimate and private stories sometimes. That just create a sense of relation. I remember, um, there was an episode I did and it was, it was around like using AI for for imaging and recollection. And you know, the, the talk also centered, the opportunity of, maybe some older folks who are dealing with like Alzheimer's. Right. Yeah. But being able to use AI to like paint this image of, of maybe a past memory that they had. Right. Beautiful. And I was able to talk about, you know, my grandfather before he passed. You know him managing dementia, but having these lucid moments that were really reflective of like a very long life well lived. And so I try to relate it to how does this apply, you know? There's the technical side, which like we're here for at the conference, right? To hear about all the bells, the whistles, the widgets and all those things. But the practical application and, um, I wanna say Leon Kuperman who we share the stage today, you know, made mention of the reality of how these tools create an opportunity for people to create something. And like, you don't have any money, you don't need to raise millions of dollars, but you can create something. With these tools and potentially create wealth or impact your community. Right? Hmm. And and I think that being able to simplify the utility of things down to the basic idea that, hey, these tools can fundamentally change our trajectory or help us become more connected, I think is a stronger story versus just computing power. Yes. Or quantum blah, blah blah, blah. And generative AI model weight. You know, like who knows what that means, right?

Brooke:

Yeah. Yeah. I love that you brought up kitchen talk. I call it dinner table conversations. We are one and the same. I love it. And I was having so many of these fascinating conversations off the record, you know, not recording them. And I said, I need to do this. I need to bring these stories to life. Yeah. And now, um, I've been doing it since the beginning of the year. I've had, around 40 conversations. Amazing. I'd love to get into your shoes. Oh wow. Okay. I'm sure you've had. Some amazing conversations that maybe haven't even seen the light of day. Wow. Yeah. Maybe you can think of something or a conversation you've had recently with a leader in the emerging tech space. Something that really stuck with you that had an aha moment. Feel free to take a couple minutes to really think about it. Yeah, my gosh. Because I feel like you probably come up and have such great conversations that don't always get to be placed on air. Yeah, I think

Sherrell:

there's I think I'm really fascinated by. The conversations I have with founders who are really building for the first time in a space that's been ignored. Mm-hmm. Um, So for instance, there's this amazing founder that I connected with years ago. She just became CEO of a fem tech company.

Brooke:

Great.

Sherrell:

And being able to use tools like AI to address women's health issues like perimenopause and menopause, which has largely sort of been ignored to an extent by the medical community, but now tools that will provide tailored solutions. Mm-hmm. And, um, you know, health, either health recommendations or insights to help women better manage symptoms of these different life stages that are taking place and taking root. And I think that. What fascinates me about, it's not the tech itself. And I wanna be clear, like I'm fascinated by what technology can do, but I'm much more fascinated by the outcome. Mm. And so when I think about how an entire generation is going to be transformed by tools for information and knowledge than that previous generations never had access to. Yes. How much more. That will create a sense of agency. Mm-hmm. And hopefully tremendous health outcomes. And the data from that being fed into new opportunities for more advanced medicine, more education for our healthcare and wellness workers. Um, and just the more that like we have these tools to leverage at our disposal that, you know, hopefully we're not just like living longer lives, we're increasing the quality of our life. Yes. And I just find that to be really fascinating. And I think it's also coming from this idea of empathetic technology. Mm-hmm. And so that kind of going back to the whole dinner table conversation, because they're very, when we talk, start to talk about health, it's a very intimate conversation.

Brooke:

Yes. The first thing that came to mind was, you know, a conversation of someone who is the face of their brand and a real personal problem that they had. I've seen how important it is lately for founders being their brand and shaping the narrative. Something that I read that one of your coin phrases is narrative is strategy. Yeah. So maybe you can speak about why that is so important right now to be the face of your brand. Really be connected to the passionate. Why Yeah. Behind what it is that you created with AI and these amazing platforms. Yeah.

Sherrell:

I think there's, novelty that robots give us. I think it's fascinating. It's interesting. Mm-hmm. But I think people still want to be connected to people. Mm. We are still souls. And whatever way you determine that, right? Yes. And so the robots are fascinating and that's a great novelty, but it's like. You know, Christmas day, you get all these gifts, you're excited for about two weeks, and then it's, it's over, right? Like the novelty is worn off. And I feel like that's kind of the same with some of these great technologies that we have. But what you remember is the, how someone made you feel, what someone said, um, the identity that you may connect with. Right. And so storytelling really has been the most ancient technology that we have. Yes, passing on formulas, passing on equations, passing on, you know, rituals and, and science. All of those are tools of story that us to live our lives be much more human. And so when I think about narrative as strategy, I always tell founders and, and I do a lot of coaching, especially, uh, with founders who are in an impact space. I always tell them, like, people wanna know why you got into this work, so tell that story. Right. Maybe you became a neurologist because your grandmother suffered with dementia. Mm-hmm. Right. Perhaps you started building technology to unlock human potential because you hit a crisis point in your life where you wanted to deeply, uh, maximize your best self. Yes. Right? People wanna know your why. People wanna know how you think. People wanna get a sense of. Not only is this possible for me, but I love to watch the journey of your ascension as well. And I think too, I think so much about the reality of how doom and gloom and dire everything feels. Yes. And I, I don't know, especially like in being in media, it's like we have to be informed as journalists. Yes. But it can be really tough and we wanna be able to tell stories that provide hope. Mm. And so I try to be very intentional around am I giving someone a potential seed that will plant in their mind that might spark an idea that they may have that might change the world. Wow. Right. And how do I let them know that yes, things feel really dark, but we can still carry light and that's what storytelling should do. And even why that even large companies are pushing CEOs to be much more visible.

Brooke:

Yes, being connected to your why is gonna push you through those tough entrepreneurial moments. I love that you said that we wanna see the come up. Yeah. It's so beautiful because I can just think of case studies I like to speak on and members of my community and it's just so exciting to see them come up during this time. Yeah. And. See their whole life skillset all come together and now them step into this new way. Absolute, maybe creating a membership app or mm-hmm. Somatic therapy coach app, yeah. Things that people really need now and they're able to vibe code overnight and get, beta testers on their app, within few weeks it's Such exciting times. Yeah.

Sherrell:

It's so cool. Yeah.

Brooke:

Well, I always like to end my conversations with you to share one key takeaway that you would like for listeners to have. A lot of listeners of the show are pivoting into tech for the first time. Amazing. Or even if you have a key takeaway from conversations you've already had today here at the AI Summit. Yeah. Uh, the floor is yours.

Sherrell:

Yeah, I think that we all can learn something about ai. It can seem really intimidating. And I think being in spaces like this where you have engineers and you have computer scientists who have been in this work for a very, like decades upon decades, it can feel like, how do I have a conversation with this person? And what I like to do is YouTube University, you know, I call it that too, and take like little mini classes on how AI can be used even in my own field. Right. When I think about, being a journalist and Oh, okay. Like I can use AI to record my voice and then create like more content. Or to edit videos or things like that. But I think the biggest thing is like just never stop learning and it's okay to struggle with things you don't understand because you're learning it for the first time and you know, if you're able to take advantage of again, the resources in your community, conferences like this, I know eMerge is gonna come up. It's like if you can get a ticket or even a lot of these conferences will provide scholarships. Mm-hmm. So just sit in the room. Like I always like, say, you know, be the dumbest person in the room. Yes. And see what you can learn. See who you can connect with. But don't be intimidated. And then share what you learn as well. And there's always, always a resource that you can tap into, whether it. Joining a digital community or finding someplace local for you to connect with other people who are also learning.

Brooke:

Beautiful. So well said. And I'm excited to tap more into the eMerge community today. Yes. And listen to the amazing panels we have store for us. So thank you so much for your time, Sherrell. Thank you so much for having me, Brooke. Thank you. Thank you. Have you just started exploring AI and feel a bit overwhelmed? Don't worry, I've got you. Jump on a quick start audit call with me so you can walk away with a clear and personalized plan to move forward with more confidence and ease. Join my community of AI adopters like yourself. Plus, grab my free resources, including the AI Get Started Guide. Or try my How I AI companion GPT. It pulls insights from my guest interviews along with global reports, so you can stay ahead of the curve. Follow the link in the description below to get started. Bora, I'm so happy to have you here. Welcome to How I AI, how are you enjoying the Tech Miami AI Conference?

Bora:

It's very, very interesting. We've been with eMerge for, since almost they started in 2015 with the Medina family, one of the earliest supporters. Mm-hmm. Uh, with the additional of Burhan the chief AI Officer is just bumped up whole lot of different level, and this is the first indication, which is great. Yes. And then as you can see from the speakers, the mm-hmm. Contents and the people evolving is just really, really big influence. And I think it's just the start of Miami speaking up on the AI scene. The states. I

Brooke:

agree. It's so smart to have it During Art Basel week. a lot of

Bora:

Basel utilizing, leveraging all the crowd, beautiful crowd in Miami.

Brooke:

But first I'd love to hear all about you. How did you get into tech? If you could share a little bit about your story.

Bora:

Yes. Uh, I'm originally from Turkey. I came to the state in'97 after graduating from mechanical engineering, which I didn't do nothing about, and I came wanna do something business to masters. At that time, back in 97, it was the MBA, like a masters in business. I came, everybody's doing MBA said, I'm not gonna do that. So there's a tech IT. At that time, back in 97, I didn't even have an email address, just one escort pc. And, I got into MIS, management information systems, learn about technology, mostly specialize in the database, Oracle sql. And then I first started my startup in my partners back in time making Baltimore in two thousands, uh, Turkish American student portal. Hmm. And we grew it, we start selling a lot of services. Mm-hmm. Helping people. The first Web 2.0 before the Web 2.0, the social media has started. Mm-hmm. And then from that, slowly we, pivoted to the software development company. And Arden is my, long friend from Baltimore, this area. Okay. He started our company back in 2014. Because he was working a big, conglomerate, software development company. I was doing the startups. We brought our expertise and skillset together where I was more focused on the startups problems, how you survive, what to do, what not to do, which we got one. And he had the expertise on the big giant, especially US based enterprises, how to navigate in those waters. So we join our forces and with both of our previous jobs, we know how to run remote and local software development teams. Mm-hmm. And then slowly projects started coming from startups to big enterprises. Currently we are little above 130 people, offices in Miami. Mm-hmm. Office in Turkey is Lanka in Chile, Columbia Peru. Open a new office in Romania and maybe in Budapest, in Hungary. Ah, so growing with the tech talent and around 2023 ish, four-ish, we started also getting AI as everybody. Mm-hmm. And then augmented and supported our software development processes with the AI and helping all the startups to cost effective and fast speed up to the market is to validate their ideas. So that is your core

Brooke:

service of 4A Labs is to advise startups? Yes. Okay. Startups.

Bora:

Startups and enterprise. We have two enterprise, so enterprise level AI or any other software development we do. Mm-hmm. Plus the startups on the startups mostly to get their ideas as fast as possible, to validate for the market and get them investor ready. That's what we're trying. Sometimes its ready, successful, so not, that's why I'm always saying don't focus on the technology. Focus on what's the problem, how you solve it, and how you're gonna defend it. How you're gonna be irreplaceable in the market.

Brooke:

How does one become irreplaceable in the market? Does that even exist anymore?

Bora:

Yes and no. How solid you identify the problem and solve. Mm-hmm. And then create the value within the realms of the budgeting and stuff. Mm-hmm. It can be, yes, there might be more multiplication or more copying of the services that you have, but you have to always find your edge. And then that's what we were talking with the startups mostly. Find your edge. What makes you unique and mostly with the ai, unfortunately what I see, a lot of AI startups they only end up or they turn to be a feature that the big tech can easily plug and play and then make them obsolete in AI or not. Yeah. So make sure you're not a feature, you're not a one button or one settings away from the big guys. Just make sure you analyze your market. Have your customers and your own team adapted to the changes and then move forward. That's the key. Especially the technology is manual. Everybody is, everything is very accessible.

Brooke:

Maybe you can dig a little bit deeper on what it means to not just be a feature. Can you maybe share a couple case studies?

Bora:

Yeah. We saw some startups trying to build. For instance, I give a search engine optimization tools and making GEOs or SEOs, yes, great. Utilizing, but it's so easy for Gemini or Google or, or, or, yes. So to add that or, but instead one of our startups, for instance, especially just grew on the pandemic area for the parents to feed their kids in that old craziness and lockdown how they feed, the healthy while engaging in the social platform, those kinds. We leveraging ai, with those, and we did, but it's not necessarily an AI feature thing, it's a community. It's the parents, it's the communities are involved. Food or groceries or, yeah. Making many different, areas where you can combine and sort serve the community and then stick to it and sell to them the services. But it's not a feature that any big tech or big guy is gonna replace. But if you say, okay, I'm just building a rec pipeline, or automated, oh, do this, I help you. Okay? They're gonna build in sooner, better, most likely. Find your edge to the ship. We help them as well by understanding more, getting more involved in the business process.

Brooke:

So really building out your community and getting a loyal fan base behind you and your brand.

Bora:

Mm-hmm. That's the key. Yeah. That's the key.

Brooke:

So speak more to startup survival. What does that mean to you?

Bora:

Startup survival has many angles. Biggest one. Yeah. Defensibility of the startup. The ideas but then cash flow management, financial management, adaptation, and the founders own personal lives or personal things. So many different, different angles. So we are more focused on try to get the heavy lifting and load of the technology off of them, at least to focus on their core business. Okay. You wanna do from A to Z? We help you out with the technology, don't worry about it, is secure and then focus on your business, your clients' needs. That's how you can survive and then get you ready if you need the investment, yes, we get you the necessary tools to go into the investors, if not self sustaining or self boost service weather. And doesn't necessarily mean it's a good thing to get an investment. Depends. Mm-hmm. So we try to, for case by case, for each startup to get their survival line. As, as long as possible.

Brooke:

That's incredible. Such amazing work. And how do you choose who to work with?

Bora:

At the beginning we were really unselective. That was one of the mistakes. I think we wanted to select more. All the stuff. Yes, yes. But then it also not only hurt them, it started hurting us too. Yeah. Because we are as powerful and as successful as our clients are. So right now we do more due diligence, more validation of the ideas. Uh, we are coming up soon in a product for solar printers and solar startup owners because before you wanna start by, first you have to have money. You have to have right team, you have to have right tool, no coding, all those barriers. Not completely diminished, but very low right now. And now we encourage people, okay, you have an idea. Do your vibe coating use lovable or replit or codex or copilot, whichever. Or, or all of them do get it done. And when you're ready to the market and then you get stuck, we help you out. Mm-hmm. At that, whatever the, the MVPs that used to come out with like 50 to a hundred thousand dollars in six to nine months, we can shrink down to 10, 15, maybe 20,000 in two months, six weeks, then see and then iterate more. This is what we are more likely. And then if we can really think, dude, don't do this startup. It's not good. You're not a hundred percent fit. Instead of just doing his money if he wants to still come. Okay, what can we do? It's the client, but we wanna just push them. We really wanna work with the stars. That's gonna be not like a single night, one shot. Yeah. Down. Just a continuity.

Brooke:

What stands out in someone who is really gonna stick out in that way? What are some key outline identifiers?

Bora:

Startups, like really solving a problem. Mm-hmm. Um, that is the mainstream is not attacking I think one thing, but again, on the other startups, startups, nothing change with ai the way they operate and the fast and speed it is changed. Other than that, again, the problem solution, how you go there, how you defense it. Mm-hmm. That's the same. There's a, it doesn't change this to.com model. Yeah. It's the same. Just the way it is running is changing. That's the way I see.

Brooke:

Can you speak and maybe tease a little bit more about your product for solopreneurs?

Bora:

Yes. Little bit teaser. We are creating, um, some sort of orchestration partnership, uh, like a for startups. We have an idea. Mm-hmm. Using, utilizing AI tools to get their let's say source speak co-founders, or they need to partner or get money. All these with the tools that we provide. You need to open your company is, here is the integration you can open. You need this ui, ux here, the, you need the finance fractional, CTO, fractional, CFO, all this build on and then solar printer to get the idea. Focus on what you are solving and what's your idea. Rest of all the things that most of the time founders are buried in and lose focus and sometimes lose the business.

Brooke:

Yeah,

Bora:

we gonna get ready out of your hands and then so you can move on your order. So it's more to come in the beginning of the 2026. Uh, we're working on that, our startup experience and portfolio.

Brooke:

That's exciting. It sounds like you've built out the whole roadmap mm-hmm. For them mm-hmm. So that they can like, really stay in their zone of genius. Yes. Mm-hmm. And, you know, all the right steps mm-hmm. To get to success and then it

Bora:

end ready for them, and they're ready for the investors with their pitch deck pitching competitions. That's also another kind of art now how you pitch, how you, yeah. So you have only four, five minutes in front of thousands of investors. Of course, to pitch. You have to alter. Maybe slightly. You don't have too much time. You have to get them and then make sure that you create the interest spark on that. So we are trying to focus on those areas. Of course, utilizing AI as much as we can.

Brooke:

One thing I know that you're, really great to speak to about is properly shipping AI with small teams. Mm-hmm. Can you maybe speak to the inner nuances of that or what, what it takes to successfully ship AI in a small

Bora:

team? On our process, for instance, and for 4A Labs, we are around 130 people, as I said. Mm-hmm. And mostly engineered stuff, but so, let's say five, six years ago, every time you got new client, especially big clients, like we, we were car for a worldwide, very big clients in addition to the startups. Mm-hmm. You have to hire five more people, 10 more people deploy team. You have to grow and you have like. So many clients had like 10,000 people. So what we did is, yeah, we didn't like a whole lot of ai, we didn't fire developers or anything, but we stopped our growing in terms of the rudimentary software development. We utilizing AI tools and uh, getting our junior level developers on the senior and architect level so they can really direct ai, they can't really command AI the way it's supposed to be. So, so you see, oh, I vibe coded and it just blew up. Vibe coded didn't scale. Of course, if you don't have any technology background or architecture, how you do the, all the, uh, DevOps infra or data the very beginning, it's gonna fail. On the scalable, it's not gonna go beyond the POC Well, we do our developers to be on the father and model the parents of the ai. Mm-hmm. To grow it so AI can take off the rudimentary time consuming and lot of expense creating part of it. And that saving time and course we also just getting for, for clients too.

Brooke:

Yes.

Bora:

Yeah.

Brooke:

I would love to just close this conversation by giving you the floor for any final key takeaways that you wanna give for those that are in the tech startup space.

Bora:

First two things. It's the best time to start a company. Mm-hmm. A startup. And one of the worst times. So in both. So, because the best time you don't have any barriers, you don't have any excuses, you cannot say, I don't know code, I don't know designer, I don't know marketer, I don't know. You have everything in your fingertips. You just have to be focused what you want to do and then be out there difficult. This is valid for everybody, meaning everybody's competing in that space, right? You have to find your edge. But let's say if you have three ideas, four ideas you don't know, test them out before you have only one shot, one time, one money, one people to impress. Now you can try as many as you want, which fix up.

Brooke:

Iterate, test, try it out. Find your edge. Yeah,

Bora:

exactly.

Brooke:

Bora thank you so much for your time today. Thank you. I really appreciate you.

Bora:

Thank you. Thank you for having me. Thank you.

Brooke:

Wow, I hope today's episode opened your mind to what's possible with AI. Do you have a cool use case on how you're using AI and want to share it? DM me. I'd love to hear more and feature you on my next podcast. Until next time, here's to working smarter, not harder. See you on the next episode of How I AI. If you're tuning into this podcast, you're most likely an AI advocate, and you may have also wondered how to support your body against the invisible stress of EMFs. Think wifi, cell towers, or hours in front of your laptop. Leela Quantum products are lab tested in triple blind studies and are proven to help harmonize and neutralize EMF signals. Their products are the few things I felt a real energetic shift from. I personally wear their quantum energy necklace daily. And if you're someone who cares about optimizing your energy and nervous system like I do, you can explore their offers with my affiliate link in the show notes below.

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Brooke Gramer

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