Most entrepreneurs do not fail because they lack ideas. They fail because they fall in Love with the idea before they prove there’s a market, a customer, and a path to revenue.
My guest today is Jason Sherman, and he has spent much of his career helping founders avoid exactly that trap.
Jason is a Technology entrepreneur, author, filmmaker, startup advisor, and AI founder. He is the author of Strap on Your Boots, a practical startup guide built around the lessons founders need most: validating ideas, understanding target markets, building MVPs, making data-driven decisions, and turning a concept into a real business.
But Jason’s story is not just about startups. It is about reinvention. He has worked as a filmmaker, journalist, author, podcaster, teacher, software developer, and entrepreneur.
Today, he is also connected to the world of Artificial Intelligence through Vengo AI as their co-founder & CEO, where the focus is helping businesses use AI to engage customers, search company knowledge, and create more effective sales conversations.
In this episode, we will talk about Jason’s own entrepreneurial journey, the mistakes he sees founders make again and again, how storytelling shapes business success, and how entrepreneurs can use AI without losing sight of the human problem they are trying to solve.
VENGO AI
https://vengoai.com
SPINNR
https://spinnr.app
Strap on Your Boots
https://tinyurl.com/bdh3s79z
JASON SHERMAN’s Website
https://jasonsherman.org
Mike Konrad entered the electronics manufacturing industry in 1985. Four decades later, he continues to dedicate his career to advancing reliability within the industry. In 1992, he founded Aqueous Technologies, an equipment manufacturer serving the electronics sector. Becoming an entrepreneur was never part of his plan, he simply had a passion for a product he designed. When his employer declined to build it, he realized the only way forward was to create it himself.
Mike entered business with strong technical skills but no business acumen. His early assets were ego, passion, arrogance, ignorance, and above all, a poor assessment of risk. Ironically, those traits proved useful in the beginning, ignorance really was bliss. But as his company grew, Mike recognized that those same traits could lead to its downfall. To survive, he had to transform himself, developing business acumen, adopting sustainable strategies, and evolving from reckless enthusiasm into purposeful leadership.
Today, with 40 years of industry experience, Mike shares both his technical expertise and his entrepreneurial journey, offering lessons from personal and professional growth, the near-misses that almost derailed him, and the strategies that carried him forward. He is also a strong advocate of “conscious marketing”, moving beyond traditional chest-thumping advertising toward education-driven authority building. By offering value through knowledge rather than hype, Mike helps organizations connect with a new generation of decision-makers who prefer independent research over bold claims.
