Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur | Start and Grow Your Own Business

In this episode, Brian sits down with Matt Justice, a career finance expert turned AI founder who is revolutionizing how SaaS companies interact with their own numbers. Matt shares his journey from feeling the intense frustration of data wrangling in corporate finance to founding SMPL.ai, a platform that gives teams their time back and empowers them with true financial intelligence. This isn't just a talk about spreadsheets and compliance; it's a masterclass in shifting your mindset to see finance as a strategic tool for making faster, smarter decisions. For any wantrepreneur or entrepreneur tired of flying blind, Matt’s story and insights will show you how to connect the dots in your data, build a business founded on personal experience, and leverage AI to scale as a solo founder.
💡 What You'll Take Away For YOUR Business
Financial Truth vs. Financial Intelligence: Understand the crucial difference and why your business needs both to survive and thrive.
Connecting the Silos: Discover how to use AI to integrate your pipeline, bookings, revenue, and cash flow for a single, reliable source of truth.
The Power of Timely Data: Learn why having perfect information too late is useless (the "Titanic" principle) and how to get real-time insights for your business.
A Solo Founder’s MVP Strategy: Hear how Matt built a proof-of-concept in just a few days and used a "pre-dinner barbecue" to get brutally honest early feedback.
Milestones Over Timelines: Why focusing on achieving the next critical milestone is more effective than getting bogged down by rigid, long-term projections.
The Unbeatable Motivator: Learn how to ground your business idea in your own blood, sweat, and tears to create a vision so clear that motivation is never a question.
AI as Your Co-founder: See practical examples of how a solo founder uses AI as an extension of his team to manage everything from customer support to coding.
📝 About Matt Justice
Matt Justice is the founder of SMPL.ai, an AI-powered financial intelligence platform for growing SaaS companies. With a deep career spanning FP&A, accounting, and strategic finance, he has spent years in the trenches building the data systems and reporting infrastructure that finance teams rely on. Matt turned his professional frustration with disconnected systems and manual data wrangling into a powerful mission: to give finance professionals their time back and empower them to make better, faster decisions. His firsthand experience makes him a uniquely insightful guest on solving real-world business problems with technology.
🎯 Matt’s BEST Piece of Advice for Wantrepreneurs and Entrepreneurs
"When you go out and you start this, make sure that it's something founded in your experience and your beliefs...and then I think motivation never becomes a topic again."
📢 Memorable Quotes
"The Titanic had perfect information, it was just late." – Matt Justice
"The more you can stay down, it just means you're learning... the more lessons you can learn now, I guess the longer you stay in the highs." – Matt Justice
"I never thought in a million years creating a software platform was going to be the easy part." – Matt Justice
💡 Actionable Takeaways
✅ Audit Your Data's Timeliness: Ask yourself if your financial reports are helping you make decisions for next month or if they're just a history lesson. Identify the biggest bottleneck in getting timely information.
✅ Reconnect With Your "Why": Write down the personal frustration or experience that led you to start (or want to start) your business. Use this as your north star for all future decisions.
✅ Identify Your Next Milestone: Forget the 5-year plan for a moment. What is the single most important milestone you need to hit to move your business forward? Focus all your energy there.
✅ Delegate One Task to AI: Find one repetitive, time-consuming task in your day (writing email drafts, summarizing notes, troubleshooting code) and find an AI tool to handle it. Start building your "extra pair of arms."
🔗 Links & Resources
Website: https://www.smpl-ai.com
Connect with Matt on LinkedIn
Follow SMPL.ai on LinkedIn

What if you could condense weeks of expert-level analysis into just a few minutes? Former McKinsey Partner Raman Julka is doing exactly that. In this episode, he breaks down his journey from advising global corporations to building two AI-native companies, ValueChaser.ai and Chance-Me.ai, with a radically lean team. This conversation is a masterclass in how AI is shattering the traditional barriers to entry in business. You’ll learn why your human judgment, not coding skills, is your most valuable asset and how to leverage your unique expertise to build a scalable business in this new economic landscape.
💡 What You'll Take Away For YOUR Business
🚀 How to transform weeks of expert analysis into minutes of automated work using AI, freeing up your time for high-value strategic decisions.
🤖 Why your human judgment and industry experience are becoming your most critical assets in an AI-driven world.
💰 The new economics of entrepreneurship: Learn how to build an enterprise-grade business with a lean team and minimal coding knowledge.
📈 Why distribution and credibility are the new "moats" for your business when technology is no longer a barrier to entry.
🧠 How to leverage your existing domain expertise to build a scalable, AI-native product that solves a real-world problem.
🎯 The seismic shift from "brand name" to "guaranteed impact" and how you can compete with established giants as a small service provider.
🛠️ How to operate like a "human + AI" team to massively accelerate your path from idea to market.
📝 About Raman Julka
Raman Julka is an entrepreneur and former McKinsey partner who spent 13 years advising major companies on technology and large-scale transformations. He left his corporate career to pursue a powerful hypothesis: that AI could turn complex, expert-driven work into scalable, accessible products. As the founder and CEO of ValueChaser.ai and Chance-Me.ai, Raman is proving that very small teams can now build businesses that previously required large organizations, offering a unique perspective that blends high-level corporate strategy with scrappy, hands-on startup execution.
🎯 Raman’s BEST Piece of Advice for Wantrepreneurs and Entrepreneurs
"Perfection is the enemy of getting it done."
📢 Memorable Quotes
 “For me, AI replaces the part that's repeatable, that's actually mundane, and it allows you to apply the human element in a much longer time frame in a much more effective way.” – Raman Julka
“As it becomes easier to build many businesses and ideas, what really differentiates is the distribution.” – Raman Julka
“How can I build a $100 million ARR business without requiring 100 additional people?” – Raman Julka
💡 Actionable Takeaways
✅ Identify the most mundane, repeatable tasks in your business this week and explore AI tools to automate them.
✅ Stop waiting for your idea to be perfect. Launch a minimum viable product (MVP) to a small group of pilot users this month to gather crucial feedback.
✅ Re-evaluate your business's "moat." If it's just your technology, start building your distribution channels and personal brand credibility now.
✅ Practice working with AI. Instead of just asking for answers, learn to provide deep context and use your expertise to guide AI tools toward superior outputs.
🔗 Links & Resources
ValueChaser.ai website: http://valuechaser.ai/
Chance-Me.ai website: http://Chance-Me.ai
Connect with Raman on LinkedIn
Follow ValueChaser.ai on LinkedIn

Ever have one of those days where the motivation just isn't there? You know you should work on your business, but you're tired, uninspired, or just don't feel like it. In this raw and personal Solo Sunday episode, Brian pulls back the curtain on the single most important trait for entrepreneurial success: just keep doing it. Recorded at 11:30 PM on his birthday, this episode isn't about theory; it's a real-time example of what it takes to show up when everything in you wants to quit. If you’ve ever waited for the “right time” or the “right feeling” to take action, this episode is the jolt of reality you need to build unstoppable momentum.
✨ Why This Matters for You
This isn't just about pushing through tiredness; it's about building an identity as someone who follows through. For entrepreneurs, this mindset is everything:
It proves that discipline, not motivation, is the engine of your business.
It helps you break the cycle of procrastination and waiting for perfect conditions.
It builds trust with yourself, proving that when you make a commitment, you will honor it.
It’s how you build real momentum, where small, consistent actions compound into massive results over time.
📝 Key Takeaways
Consistency > Intensity. Showing up every day, even when it's not your best work, beats waiting for a perfect day that never comes.
Stop Negotiating With Yourself. Once you decide to do something, the debate is over. Brian shares how he adopted the Kobe Bryant mindset of refusing to negotiate with his own commitments.
Action Creates Motivation. Don't wait to feel inspired. The act of starting is what generates energy and clarity, not the other way around.
Redefine "Just Do It." It's not just about doing it; it's about doing it despite the excuses, the tiredness, the fear, and the self-doubt.
Show Up for Your Future Self. Every time you push through resistance, you're giving a gift to the future version of you who will benefit from that consistency.
Your "Best" Is Situational. Give your best for that specific moment. It doesn't have to be your all-time best performance, but it has to be your best effort right now.
🚀 Put It Into Action
This week, honor the contract you made with yourself:
Identify the #1 task you've been avoiding because you "don't feel like it."
Set a timer for just 15 minutes and start. No negotiations, no overthinking.
The goal isn't to finish it perfectly, but simply to prove to yourself that you are the kind of person who shows up, no matter what.
🔗 Stay Connected
Subscribe to the show so you never miss an episode
Connect with Brian on Instagram @imetbrian
Share this episode with a fellow entrepreneur who needs to hear this message today

In this special Collab Week episode of Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur, six founders come together to answer one deeply personal question:
What's one thing you faked… until you made it?
You'll hear from Sheri Roder of Get UnStuck HQ, Bill McCumber of Rowan Elder, Wendy Votroubek of Integrity Legal Nurse Consulting, Sara Reece of Workmind, Patricia Ballivian of Altura Strategies, and Jane Alexander of Emma Advisor. Each of them talks about a moment when they had to show up before they felt ready.
For any wantrepreneur or entrepreneur wondering whether they really belong in the room, this episode will help. You'll hear how six founders moved from feeling like impostors to feeling like themselves, and why the "faking" part was never really pretending.
✨ What You'll Take Away
In this episode, you'll learn:
Why acting with confidence before you feel confident is how real confidence gets built
How to choose the kind of leader you want to be without turning into someone else
Why nearly everyone in the room feels the same impostor syndrome you do
How asking for help and investing in yourself can close skill gaps faster than faking it
Why being publicly visible is part of the job when you lead a company
How to stop borrowing someone else's version of leadership and own the one you've earned
What changes once you have real customers and can say your title with conviction
🎙️ Meet the Collab Week Contributors
Sheri Roder — Get UnStuck HQ
Sheri Roder is the founder of Get UnStuck HQ, a career and leadership coaching and advising practice for accomplished professionals at an inflection point. She spent more than 40 years in corporate life, including leading a department in London for the first time. Then she stepped away to build a practice around the work she loved most: helping people make decisions they've been circling for months, see options they couldn't see before, and trust their own judgment again. Today she helps clients turn messy, complicated situations into something they can act on.
Connect with Sheri: https://www.getunstuckhq.com/
William "Bill" McCumber — Rowan Elder
Bill McCumber is the founder of two ed-tech companies, Rowan Elder Productions and Applied Erudition. Rowan Elder is an async faculty development program that teaches professors to build studio-quality online lectures that feel more like YouTube than a stale slideshow. Applied Erudition is a platform that measures real capability rather than seat time.
Connect with Bill:
https://www.rowanelder.com/home
https://appliederudition.com/
Wendy Votroubek — Integrity Legal Nurse Consulting
Wendy Votroubek, RN, BSN, MPH, LNC, founded Integrity Legal Nurse Consulting in 2010. She leads a team of more than 20 legal nurses who translate complex medical data into legal strategy for civil and criminal defense attorneys nationwide. She is in the fifth decade of her nursing career and has written three nursing textbooks, including The Path to Legal Nurse Consulting. She taught at the University of Portland School of Nursing from 2011 to 2021 and now speaks on personal injury, medical malpractice, and criminal defense matters.
Connect with Wendy: https://legalnursepdx.com/
Sara Reece — Workmind
Sara Reece is the CEO and Co-Founder of Workmind, which helps growing organizations use practical, operations-first automation to remove friction and grow without adding headcount at the same pace. Over the last seven years she has implemented automation for nonprofits, small businesses, franchise systems, and Fortune 500 enterprises. Before that, her career ran through journalism, TV broadcasting, environmental research, and tech. She is the author of The Practical Path to Operational Automation and speaks regularly on automation, AI, and sustainable growth.
Connect with Sara:
https://workmind.cloud/
https://www.saralreece.com/
Patricia Ballivian — Altura Strategies
Patricia Ballivian is the founder of Altura Strategies, where she helps founders bring clarity and structure to the messy realities of scaling. She is originally from Bolivia and built her career across luxury retail and startups, working where strategy, people, systems, and customer experience meet. She has always been the person searching for the real source of friction, and that instinct became the foundation of Altura's systems-forward, people-centered approach to turning growing pains into sustainable growth.
Connect with Patricia: https://www.alturastrategies.net/
Jane Alexander — Emma Advisor
Jane Alexander is the founder and CEO of Emma Advisor, an AI platform that helps families get from high school to college with more clarity, strategy, and confidence. Her own path was unconventional: she was homeschooled in rural Idaho, went the community college route, and later did graduate work at Harvard. She then spent more than a decade advising leaders at over 200 colleges and universities. Emma Advisor grew from her belief that opportunity shouldn't depend on social capital or expensive consultants.
Connect with Jane: https://emmaadvisor.ai/

Are you so focused on growth that you're accidentally breaking the very things that made your business special? In this episode, we sit down with Jeri Larsen, a former C-suite executive turned founder of Manage for Good. Jeri reveals why the traditional, siloed approach to people, operations, and growth is a recipe for disaster during scale. She provides a masterclass on how to navigate the painful but necessary "inflection points" of growth by building a solid foundation first. This episode is a must-listen for any founder who wants to scale intentionally, keep their best people, and create a high-performing organization without losing its heart and soul.
💡 What You'll Take Away For YOUR Business
How to spot the critical "inflection points" in your business and make the leap without crashing.
The high-stakes decision between promoting an internal star vs. hiring an external expert (and the framework to get it right).
Why building your operational infrastructure before you need it is the key to catching, not chasing, growth.
A powerful daily leadership practice to ensure you show up as the intentional, empowering leader your team needs.
How to stop "squeezing more blood out of the turnip" and adopt an abundance mindset that creates loyal teams and happy clients.
The secret to using an objective, third-party perspective to see and solve problems you're too close to notice.
📝 About Jeri Larsen
Jeri Larsen is the CEO of Manage for Good, a management consulting firm dedicated to helping companies scale without chaos. With a powerhouse career as a Chief Operating Officer, Chief Customer Officer, and Chief People Officer across SaaS, Fortune 500 consulting, and more, Jeri has seen it all. Her unique expertise lies at the intersection of people, operations, and growth, where she helps leaders build organizations that perform exceptionally well without sacrificing the culture that makes them great. She is the author of the new book, Manage for Good: Signals of Impact, a playbook for identifying and fixing the hidden red flags in any business.
🎯 Jeri’s BEST Piece of Advice for Wantrepreneurs and Entrepreneurs
"Figure out if you're the problem and figure out how to fix it, because so often we are only in our own way."
📢 Memorable Quotes
“As companies grow and scale, there's such a tendency to squeeze more blood out of the turnip… Instead, we're not thinking, ‘If I'm growing, I want loyal, incredible people who enjoy their day-to-day work.’” – Jeri Larsen
“It is that moment where I need to jump off the cliff, but I'm scared. That's the moment you have to jump.” – Jeri Larsen
“As the leader, my job is to get out of their way and just give them everything that they need to be empowered.” – Jeri Larsen
💡 Actionable Takeaways
✅ Start your day with intention. Before diving into work, decide what kind of leader you need to be for your team today.
✅ Audit your next key hire. Are you hiring for potential and cultural fit, or just for a resume with past experience? Think through the long-term impact on your team.
✅ "War game" your operations. Ask your team: "If our biggest dream client signed tomorrow, what parts of our process would immediately break?" Start fixing those gaps now.
✅ Get an outside perspective this week. Ask a trusted mentor or peer to look at a persistent problem in your business. Listen to what they see that you don't.
🔗 Links & Resources
Website: https://www.manageforgood.com
Get the book on Amazon: Manage for Good: Signals of Impact
Connect with Jeri on LinkedIn
Follow Manage for Good on LinkedIn