"on today's episode of the next next Our Guest is Brian balfor founder and CEO of reforge now I've known Brian a long time dating back to his vixo days which must have been 2007 2008 since founding vix..."

"on today's episode of the next next Our Guest is Brian balfor founder and CEO of reforge now I've known Brian a long time dating back to his vixo days which must have been 2007 2008 since founding vix..."

"number of reasons one he's a multiple time venture-backed founder and now he's scaling reforge where they've raised a bunch of venture money and he's trying to balance being a venture back founder wit..."

"2016 now his story is interesting for a number of reasons one he's a multiple time venture-backed founder and now he's scaling reforge where they've raised a bunch of venture money and he's trying to ..."

"is helping practitioners but a lot of product people to understand how their craft is changing and how to incorporate AI so he's doing a lot with AI to help train practitioners they're doing a lot wit..."

"train practitioners they're doing a lot with AI internally and they actually just made an acquisition of an AI company to help them with their internal tooling now we cover a lot in this episode not j..."

"episode not just in terms of reforge and some of the trials and tribulations that they've gone through we also talk about how Brian has managed to balance it all what he's doing well what he wishes he..."

"but before we get started I'm Jason Jacobs and this is the next next it's not really a show it's more of a Learning Journey to explore how Founders can build ambitious companies while being present fo..."

"but before we get started I'm Jason Jacobs and this is the next next it's not really a show it's more of a Learning Journey to explore how Founders can build ambitious companies while being present fo..."

"not sure where this is going to go but it's going to be fun okay Brian bow for welcome to the show thanks for having me it's been a long time it has yeah I remember gosh this was right around the time..."

"have a lot of stuff to cover but why don't we do two things one I want to tell you why I'm so excited that you came on and I want to give you a little bit of context for what I'm up to just fr the dis..."

"this was right around the time that I was looking to start run keeper up I started in 2008 so I don't think I'd quite started yet but you were like a legend in the Boston founder circles which compris..."

"have a lot of stuff to cover but why don't we do two things one I want to tell you why I'm so excited that you came on and I want to give you a little bit of context for what I'm up to just fr the dis..."

"raised money my wife and I had a very unfortunate experience we had a daughter that passed away at Birth suddenly go and I that was a obviously a very kind of there was a moment it was the first time ..."

"Market just totally crashed came back from prent to leave like super early we ended up in like this replanning this Absolut like replanning cycle around just redoing our goals trying to figure out whe..."

"raised money my wife and I had a very unfortunate experience we had a daughter that passed away at Birth suddenly go and I that was a obviously a very kind of there was a moment it was the first time ..."

"Market just totally crashed came back from prent to leave like super early we ended up in like this replanning this Absolut like replanning cycle around just redoing our goals trying to figure out whe..."

"yeah so it first started almost exactly two years ago a little over two years ago so every Christmas like New Year's reforge typically takes a full week to week and a half maybe longer off and for the..."

"yeah so it first started almost exactly two years ago a little over two years ago so every Christmas like New Year's reforge typically takes a full week to week and a half maybe longer off and for the..."

"it's still a big part of it I think like I said it we we very much believe this transition to AI native product teams is both part of it is retooling but part part of it is working a different way and..."

"and I think the best to give you a sense is it used to take us let me see like six months and a team of let's call it four full-time people to create one of our courses it now takes one person 5 weeks..."

"it's still a big part of it I think like I said it we we very much believe this transition to AI native product teams is both part of it is retooling but part part of it is working a different way and..."

"we basically get Executives that are like in between gigs like to get about their next things that and they use this as just a thing to do as they try to figure out what their next thing is and so it'..."

"had to guess directionally will the bias be more buildinh house or acquire as it relates to additional products over time it's a good question that we keep debating we've and it will always be a mix t..."

"you finding that AI you mentioned it's impacting efficiency is it actually getting to impacting either number of hires or the profiles that you're hiring for in material ways in a short term yes so so..."

"uhuh and how how are you thinking about and utilizing AI internally and also how are you utilizing it in terms of the training creation Andor delivery like the other side of the business yeah so I'll ..."

"and I think the best to give you a sense is it used to take us let me see like six months and a team of let's call it four full-time people to create one of our courses it now takes one person 5 weeks..."

"your is your how are you thinking about the toggle between profitability and growth right now we're break even and we're sitting on a huge pile of cash and part of that is I think as you go through li..."

"interesting because you're running a venture back company and it's a venture back company that that works with lots of other Venture back companies and you're specifically working with them around pro..."

"we basically get Executives that are like in between gigs like to get about their next things that and they use this as just a thing to do as they try to figure out what their next thing is and so it'..."

"you finding that AI you mentioned it's impacting efficiency is it actually getting to impacting either number of hires or the profiles that you're hiring for in material ways in a short term yes so so..."

"and what it will enable but what about just in terms of more societal Evolution do you think the startup culture of 247 and burnout and tons of stress and sticking a bunch of frogs in the pot and boil..."

"something I'd love to get your advice on and the other is I have an idea I want to run by you okay that work that's all right so the advice is just that I've got this content machine like newsletter p..."

"your is your how are you thinking about the toggle between profitability and growth right now we're break even and we're sitting on a huge pile of cash and part of that is I think as you go through li..."

"interesting because you're running a venture back company and it's a venture back company that that works with lots of other Venture back companies and you're specifically working with them around pro..."

"of knowledge work is going through the same transition right it's not if you're a product manager it's obvious that being a software engineer safer or vice versa or any of these mixtures of things I t..."

"and what it will enable but what about just in terms of more societal Evolution do you think the startup culture of 247 and burnout and tons of stress and sticking a bunch of frogs in the pot and boil..."

"something I'd love to get your advice on and the other is I have an idea I want to run by you okay that work that's all right so the advice is just that I've got this content machine like newsletter p..."

"love building this way yeah yeah Brian anything I know we covered a lot of ground but anything I didn't ask that you wish I did oh boy we we did Cover a lot of ground like no I would just say look if ..."