This New Way

• AI Saves $40K/Year on Employee Engagement Software with Liam Martin, Co-Founder of Time Doctor

  Subscribe at thisnewway.com to get the step-by-step playbooks, tools, and workflows.In episode 5 of This New Way, Aydin sits down with Liam Martin, co-founder of Time Doctor and Running Remote, to explore how AI is reshaping team productivity, SaaS economics, and the future of work. Liam shares how his team replaced $40K/year worth of employee engagement software with open-source AI tools — and how their internal R&D lab, Chainsaw, is building the future of workforce analytics.You’ll hear how Time Doctor uses AI to reclassify productivity metrics by job role, how AI has changed their approach to product-market fit, and why they’re betting on proprietary agents as the next evolution of workplace tools. Liam also shares his personal tech stack, insights on open-source AI models like DeepSeek, and how he's replacing Google with LLMs in his day-to-day workflow.You’ll walk away with practical ideas for how to reduce SaaS spend, empower your R&D teams, and get ahead of AI's disruptive force in remote work and beyond.Click here to check out the AI-generated timestamps, episode summary and transcript.. . .Like this episode? Be sure to leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review and share the episode with someone who will benefit from listening.. . .TIMESTAMPS 00:36 Liam’s McGill story and how he accidentally left academia 02:45 The early days of remote work and building Time Doctor 05:57 What Time Doctor actually does (and how AI is changing it) 08:08 How AI reclassified productivity by job type 11:03 Could product-market fit collapse due to AI? 13:44 Building the Chainsaw team 20:02 Replacing Google with LLMs 24:35 Why proprietary AIs might need to be “pushy,” not polite 28:03 Don’t wait for economics — just solve the problem 29:45 What’s coming next in the AI cost curve35:58 GPT customizes slide decks based on personality types39:07 Build complex no-code apps with just a prompt using Lovable43:46 Engineers may be more disrupted by AI than customer serviceTOOLS & RESOURCES MENTIONEDAI Tools & ModelsDeepSeek OCR → replaced paid OCR tools, cutting costs by 90%Do Browser (Chrome extension) → automates browser actions like a humanLM Studio → runs open-source LLMs like DeepSeek and Claude locallyClaude (Anthropic) → used for AI-based task delegationOpenAI GPT-4 / Operators → tested against open-source alternativesInternal Innovation & AI SystemsChainsaw R&D Team → focused on building from scratch, not optimizingWorkforce Analytics with AI → redefining productivity dynamically by roleAI-driven feature decisions → testing new models before looking at ROIOCR Video Analysis → used to assess best vs worst execution of tasksPhilosophies & Frameworks“Build a chainsaw, not a sharper axe” → rethink, don’t just improve“Solve one customer’s problem perfectly” → from Y Combinator playbookPersonal AI-first workflows → replacing search with LLMs

  --------  

  47:18
• How the CEO of a Billion Dollar Company Uses AI with Andrew Waitman of Assent

  Subscribe at ⁠www.thisnewway.com⁠ to get the step-by-step playbooks, tools, and workflows.In episode 4 of This New Way, Aydin sits down with Andrew Waitman, CEO of Assent, to explore how a billion-dollar B2B SaaS company is transforming operations, product development, and team productivity with AI. Andrew shares how Assent went from under $1M to nearly $200M ARR, became one of the earliest adopters of GitHub Copilot and ChatGPT Enterprise, and how they now embed AI-driven OKRs across every team.You’ll hear real use cases: from summarizing messy trip reports, generating synthetic bills of materials for secure testing, and accelerating supplier document reviews — to measuring impact on productivity and profitability. Andrew also offers actionable insights on how to drive AI adoption across teams, how CEOs should personally lead the AI charge, and which tools he uses daily to stay ahead.You’ll walk away knowing how to start small, scale fast, and turn AI into a measurable force multiplier across your org.⁠⁠Click here⁠⁠ to check out the AI-generated timestamps, episode summary and transcript.. . .Like this episode? Be sure to leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review and share the episode with someone who will benefit from listening.. . .TIMESTAMPS:00:35 Andrew’s background and Assent’s growth journey02:37 The scale: 18,000 suppliers, 200 compliance topics05:07 The post-ChatGPT transformation and Vista Equity OKRs06:09 Early adoption of GitHub Copilot & ChatGPT Enterprise08:51 Trip report improvements using AI synthesis09:35 Generating synthetic bills of materials for safe testing12:26 Where AI drives efficiency: entity resolution, part matching, document validation13:12 Measuring AI’s impact: productivity, quality, and profitability17:32 Expanding customer success capacity without adding headcount20:37 How to drive company-wide AI adoption (hackathons, Slack, evangelists)24:10 Andrew’s personal AI workflows & deep research routinesTOOLS & RESOURCES MENTIONED:AI Tools & PlatformsGitHub Copilot (Microsoft) → adopted early for engineeringChatGPT (OpenAI, including Enterprise license) → used across teams for synthesis, rewriting, summarizationPerplexity AI (Pro) → used for deep research reportsInternal AI Use Cases & SystemsSynthetic bills of materials → generated using AI to safely test software without exposing sensitive customer dataAutomated document review → handling millions of supplier documents for complianceEntity resolution → using AI to match the right supplier or part across massive datasetsPart resolution & document validation → automating complex checks in the supply chainCompany-Wide AI Adoption Tools & MethodsOKRs (Objectives & Key Results) → embedded AI goals at company, team, and functional levelsAI hackathons → internal competitions to inspire creative use casesSlack channels → for sharing, evangelizing, and discussing AI applications internallyPersonal CEO Tools & WorkflowsPerplexity deep research → running 12–15 deep research reports per dayAI summarization & rewriting → e.g., turning multi-page trip reports into professional one-page summaries

  --------  

  39:16
• AI Digs For Insights From Unstructured Data with Philippe Dame of Recollective

  Subscribe at Thisnewway.com to get the step-by-step AI workflows.In episode 3 of This New Way, Aydin sits down with Philippe Dame, CPO of Recollective, to unpack how AI is transforming qualitative market-research, sales operations, internal knowledge-sharing, and day-to-day productivity.Phil walks through the product pivot that turned Recollective’s vast unstructured data into an “AI-first” insights engine, then demos a stack of no-code automations — from AI-powered lead scoring in Google Sheets to a self-serve Vertex AI search that makes every doc, deck, and Gong call instantly searchable.You’ll hear concrete play-by-plays, see cost breakdowns , and learn how to start small, scale fast, and turn AI into a force-multiplier across your org.Timestamps:00:35 Phil’s background and early web-tool days01:44 Pivot to Recollective and focus on market-research tech03:18 Why hybrid qual + quant research matters03:58 Unstructured data → perfect AI playground04:50 “Roadmap reset” after ChatGPT pressure06:00 How the team up-skilled on LLMs & vector DBs08:12 First AI features: summarization → theme extraction → comparisons09:05 Making space for AI work without derailing commitments10:10 Company-wide AI wins: sales data mining & lead scoring13:08 Relay + Google Sheets workflow for automated enrichment16:18 Running internal “AI office hours” to drive adoption17:05 Staying current: newsletters, trials, and cost control20:25 Seat-based vs. usage-based pricing—Phil’s take23:04 Perplexity as Phil’s go-to research sidekick24:50 Cutting the “collaboration tax” with self-serve AI answers27:24 Live demo: Recollective’s Ask-AI tab & verbatim citations31:28 Segment @mentions for instant comparative analysis37:04 Emotion tagging and drilling into negative feedback38:30 Building an internal Vertex-AI search in one afternoon42:23 Agent Builder setup walkthrough44:34 Relay use-cases: lead workflows, news scraping, stand-up bot53:23 n8n migrations: 4,000 Gong calls plus on-the-fly analysis56:30 OpenAI Playground & Notebook LM for ad-hoc knowledgebases1:02:20 Google AI Studio multimodal experiments (free)1:04:04 Start simple—one use-case, one stakeholder, iterateTools & Resources Mentioned:AI / LLMs & Model-PlaygroundsChatGPT (OpenAI)OpenAI Platform & PlaygroundClaude (Anthropic)Perplexity Pro- Google Gemini (Workspace)Google AI StudioKnowledgeBase & Search Vertex AI Agent Builder / Search (Google Cloud) Notebook LM (Google) Internal Vertex-powered “ask-AI” portalAutomation & WorkflowsRelay (no-code workflow tool with AI steps)Zapier (reference point)n8n (open-source automation + AI agents)Data, CRM & Sales EnablementGoogle SheetsSalesforceOutreachGong (call recordings)Collaboration & ProductivitySlack (AI channel, human-in-the-loop flows)Notion (company intranet)Google Drive & Google CalendarRSS feeds + custom “Article Extractor” scraperCore ProductRecollective (Phil’s qualitative-research platform with built-in AI features)Developer / Engineering UtilitiesCursor IDE (AI-assisted coding, briefly cited)

  --------  

  1:05:34
• AI Responds to All Your Emails with Felipe Izquierdo

  Subscribe at Thisnewway.com to get the step-by-step AI workflows.In episode 2 of This New Way, Felipe Izquierdo, CEO of Quest, explains how a small, boot-strapped team runs both an educational game studio and a cohort-based learning program by leaning on AI for almost every function — prototyping multiplayer math games in hours instead of weeks, automating high-touch parent emails, and even building a 24/7 “executive-coach” phone agent from scratch.Along the way he shares the exact stacks (Cursor, Replit, Zapier, Anthropic, Twilio, 11 Labs) and design choices that let three people operate like fifty.Timestamps00:00 Felipe’s path from non-technical founder to AI-assisted coder01:28 What Quest does and why AI keeps the team lean03:28 How AI shrinks game-prototype cycles from weeks to hours08:34 Daily workflow: Cursor, Replit, Super Whisper voice coding & Mac dictation14:00 Learning to code faster via screenshot-driven ChatGPT tutoring16:58 Show & Tell #1: Zapier + Anthropic email-drafting pipeline (live demo)30:59 Show & Tell #2: Building and calling “Maximo,” a voice executive-coach agent41:48 Future bets: voice as the primary UI and AI-only workflowsResources & Tools Mentioned:Coding & Prototyping: Cursor, Replit, Devin (reference), GitHub PR reviewsVoice / Dictation: Super Whisper (Mac), macOS built-in dictation, 11 Labs Voice & Conversational AI, OpenAI Real-Time APIAutomation & LLMs: Zapier (Zaps), Anthropic Claude, Google Sheets / Airtable, Twilio (SMS & voice)Products & Links:Quest math & strategy games – joinquest.comAI executive coach “Maximo” – meetmaximo.com

  --------  

  46:13
• AI Creates Your Board Report in 60 Seconds With Aydin Mirzaee

  Subscribe at Thisnewway.com to get the step-by-step AI workflows.Welcome to the very first episode of This New Way. We’re kicking things off by flipping the mic and letting Manuela Bárcenas interview Aydin Mirzaee, our podcast host, about why we’re retiring Supermanagers and launching this new, AI-centric show. In this episode, Aydin describes how adopting AI feels like onboarding a new teammate, how he steered Fellow’s pivot from manual meeting workflows to an AI meeting assistant, and demos two of his favorite tactics:Turning a 60-second voice memo into a polished board-report section with ChatGPTUsing Fellow’s Ask Fellow and Copilot to auto-draft mandates and PRDs straight from meetings and customer callsYou’ll also hear the cultural plays — company-wide hackathons, “show & tell” town halls, and even a ChatGPT-every-new-tab browser hack — that helped Aydin get the whole team moving faster with AI. We wrap up with a teaser of future guests who are smashing targets and reinventing product management with AI tools.Timestamps:01:01 Looking back – 5 years of Supermanagers and why a change is needed01:41 New revolution – From remote-work disruption to the AI era02:26 Big reveal – Retiring Supermanagers and launching This New Way03:03 Format upgrade – Video, YouTube/Spotify, and on-air show-and-tell demos03:58 Why it matters – Managing humans and AI agents will soon be core leadership skill05:35 About Aydin – Founder background & current role as CEO of Fellow06:38 Fellow’s AI pivot – Turning a manual meeting tool into an AI meeting assistant08:59 CEO advice – Hackathons and cross-functional learning to kick-start adoption10:31 Creating AI culture – Weekly town-hall demos normalize AI-assisted work11:31 Personal hacks – ChatGPT-on-new-tab, screenshot explainers, and habit breaking14:44 Demo 1 – Voice memo ➜ board-report section via ChatGPT “Projects” workflow20:38 Demo 2 – One-on-one recap ➜ company-wide mandate memo with Fellow AI23:46 Demo 3 – Customer interview ➜ detailed PRD/requirements doc in minutes26:46 Impact – Better communication, higher expectations, and faster output28:35 Future outlook – Doing “1,000 % work” with 100 % resourcesResources and Tools mentioned:ChatGPT desktop app (voice mode) & GPT-4o-01 modelChatGPT “Projects” for reusable style guidesChrome extension that opens ChatGPT on every new tabFellow AI Meeting Assistant: Ask Fellow, Copilot, Redaction featuresCrewAI – multi-agent orchestration platform (via Greg Eisenberg video)Slack – channel posts of AI-generated memosYouTube creators (e.g., Greg Eisenberg) for discovering new AI workflows

  --------  

  29:42

More Technology podcasts

Trending Technology podcasts

About This New Way