Modern work feeds you two conflicting stories: On social media, it sounds like AI is replacing everything. Inside real companies, leaders are just trying to find one person who can think clearly, build simple workflows, and actually ship solutions.

In this reboot of The Mentors, Vadim and Sergei share what they’re hearing directly from 14+ CEOs, VPs, and operators about how AI is actually being used inside modern businesses—and what that means for your career, especially if you’re early-stage or non-technical.

They talk about the messy truth behind AI adoption, why “just managers” are at risk, what “being technical” really means if you don’t write code, and how to build practical AI and workflow skills that make you stand out instead of getting replaced. They also share early-career stories of automating their own work with simple tools (before AI was mainstream) and how that instantly changed how leaders perceived their value.

If you’ve ever felt anxious scrolling LinkedIn or TikTok about AI and the future of work, this episode will help you zoom out, reframe the risk, and focus on what still matters: becoming the person in the room who can learn fast, simplify complexity, and deliver measurable results.

Subscribe to The Mentors for real conversations with CEOs, operators, and educators about what’s actually happening in hiring, talent, and modern work - and how you can stay competitive as technology evolves.

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When a founder decides to build an impact driven organization, at some point they have to make an important decision on whether to structure it as a for profit entity or a non-profit. While a for-profit can maximize financial upside to the founding team and shareholders, a non-profit by definition can focus more of its effort on the impact it wants to have in the world.

In this week's episode bring back Darrell Silver, the founder and former CEO of Thinkful, a for-profit education venture, to talk about why the model of the non-profit freeCodeCamp is so innovative in its funding and impact model, and why he is now a major donor and supporter of the organization that was founded with a similar mission to his.

In this rare interview, we got to dive into some of the nuances of how nonprofits are managed and how freeCodeCamp has been able to deliver 1.1 billion minutes of instruction with just a 12 person team by making their education model open source. We also discussed how people who want to improve their career prospects and pick up a technical skill can best decide whether to learn online for free or pay tuition for an instructor guided education experience if they can afford it.

Tune in to hear our interview with Darrell Silver about the story and future of freeCodeCamp.

If you want to support their work, you can donate as little as $5 here which will directly contribute to 250 hours of free education!

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Kevin Urrutia decided to teach himself to code while in college so that he could turn all the different business ideas he had into reality. Little did he know that after years of building apps and websites and trying idea after idea, he would need to completely change his mindset about how to get ideas off the ground to have his first entrepreneurial success.

Kevin left his home in New York to go to Silicon Valley and work as a software engineer for Mint.com and later a little known startup called Zaarly where he would learn the power of SEO and marketing.

After reading every marketing and sales book he could find, he moved back to start an online maid service called Maid Sailors. In this episode he talks about how his new found love for marketing helped him scale Maid Sailors to millions of dollars in revenue, and truly kicked off his entrepreneurial career helping him launch several more startups, including his digital marketing agency Voy Media.

This show is brought to you by School16, a tech career accelerator for professionals interested in roles in Product, Marketing, Sales and Operations at top tech firms and startups.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.