Michael Grinberg is the founder and CEO of the RevOps Shop, a specialized revenue operations firm helping B2B companies optimize their data and CRM infrastructure. Prior to building his own company, he worked his way up through HubSpot for over six years, gaining deep insights into fast-scaling organizations and global talent density. In this episode, he shares why traditional employee templating fails, how to structure dual organizational charts for business outcomes and culture, and his controversial take on why AI agents should never be treated as teammates.

- Why trying to template human behavior in business rarely works and how to adjust expectations to match individual journeys instead

- The highest leverage method for turning employees into high-agency owners by managing outcomes and completely stepping away

- How to design a secondary culture organizational chart using social pods to build a fabric of remote connectivity

- Why you should mandate that entry-level remote hires become the squeaky wheel to extract necessary context from busy executives

- The financial framework for evaluating AI integration by keeping agents strictly in systems budgets rather than people costs

- Why the traditional hiring process is breaking due to fake profiles and how a live screen share test exposes real capability

- Using life adversity and immigration as a core behavioral heuristic to identify unbreakable grit during interviews

Chapters:
00:00 The role of AI agents in the modern workforce
01:10 Introducing Michael Greenberg and the RevOps Shop
03:00 Why grit and overcoming adversity predict candidate success
07:34 Giving your team ownership of outcomes instead of dictating the process
10:20 Lessons from HubSpot on sourcing talent globally
18:25 Creating a two layer org chart for business operations and team culture
20:43 How to onboard entry level talent into a chaotic executive schedule
26:09 Why AI tools belong in your systems budget and not your headcount
34:00 How the immigrant perspective shapes entrepreneurial resilience
40:35 The ultimate live screen share test for vetting remote hires

Where to find Michael Grinberg:
Website: https://www.revops.shop/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sales-and-marketing/

Where to find Luiz Cent:
Website: https://latamcent.com/
Who We Hire: https://whowehire.org/

Mark Schopmeyer is the co-founder and co-CEO of CaptivateIQ, a modern commission-management platform that scales incentives for revenue teams. Prior to building his own company, he led finance and strategy operations at BrightRoll and worked extensively in growth-equity technology investing. Under his executive leadership, the company has scaled to serve nearly 1,000 customers globally, including enterprise giants like Netflix and Stripe. In this episode, he breaks down the psychological flaws of spreadsheet-driven management and outlines his core framework for spotting elite leadership talent.

- Copied comp plans from larger firms lack authenticity and can easily drive your team in the opposite direction of your actual business objectives.

- Spreadsheet math often misleads finance teams into keeping quotas artificially high due to a false belief that sales reps stop working once they hit their targets.

- Top performing sales representatives are driven by a desire to maximize their paychecks rather than hitting a bare minimum quota.

- When introducing short-term spiffs, leaders must define a clear narrative and exit strategy to avoid the incentive implicitly becoming permanent.

- Cultural screening must be an explicit, dedicated stage in the recruiting funnel rather than a casual addition to tactical manager interviews.

- Skill barriers have collapsed with the rise of artificial intelligence, making a candidate's intrinsic will the primary determinant of hiring success.

- Elite executive hires can be effectively filtered by evaluating just two core qualities during the interview process, clarity and energy.

Timestamps:
00:00 The origin story of CaptivateIQ and broken compensation
4:35 Finding a co-founder and the Y Combinator experience
09:12 Why venture capital will not magically build your company
13:03 The fundamental flaw in copying other companies' compensation plans
17:16 Why finance leaders misunderstand sales rep motivation at quota
23:27 How to design effective short term spiffs without breaking culture
28:07 Designing a strict interview process to protect your core values
32:38 Strategies for maintaining company culture across international borders
36:55 Why AI agents cannot replace the accountability of a human sales rep
41:53 The clarity and energy framework for hiring legendary executives

Where to find Mark Schopmeyer:
Website: https://www.captivateiq.com/Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mschop/
Email: mark@captivateiq.com

Where to find Luiz Cent:
Website: https://latamcent.com/
Who We Hire: https://whowehire.org/

Elio Narciso is the co-founder and CEO of ScaleStack, an AI-powered go-to-market infrastructure layer powering billions of data points for enterprise customers, and the host of the Revenue Engine Masters podcast. Before ScaleStack, he spent four years at AWS running their global startup program with front-row seats to hundreds of companies building revenue engines, became a certified Amazon Bar Raiser with veto power on hires, and built two prior companies including one that cleared $50M.

In this episode, he breaks down the Bar Raiser system, the follow-up question framework that exposes BS candidates, and why AI has raised the hiring bar so high he wouldn't hire his own past self.

- Why lowering the hiring bar at Amazon during COVID created cascading effects, including missing the AI wave entirely

- How the Amazon Bar Raiser program works and why veto power changes hiring behavior across an entire org

- The follow-up question method that breaks down rehearsed answers and AI-assisted interview scripts

- Why Elio flips the interview by making candidates ask him questions first, and what their questions reveal about curiosity

- The "what did the customer say?" question that exposes whether a candidate is truly customer-centric or shallow

- Why ScaleStack shares interviewer feedback before debriefs, breaking from Amazon's protocol

- How to evaluate a co-founder using complementary skill sets, kindness in failure, and humility in success

- Why "AI slop" first drafts are an instant red flag and what real upleveling looks like in 2026

- The closing rule for founders making their third or fourth hire: be your own bar raiser

Timestamps:

00:00 Cold open: scripts, agents, and rising expectations

01:00 From AWS to a third startup: what changed in hiring

03:30 Becoming an Amazon Bar Raiser and how veto power works

06:30 Follow-up questions that kill rehearsed and AI-assisted answers

10:50 The ScaleStack interview system and cultural fit values

13:50 Flipping the interview to test for curiosity

17:30 Pre-briefs, live docs, and debrief structure

21:50 "What did the customer say?" and exposing BS candidates

24:50 Choosing co-founders you actually know

35:50 "I wouldn't hire myself two years ago" in the AI era

40:00 Final advice: be your own bar raiser

Where to find the guest:

Elio Narciso on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elionarciso/

ScaleStack: https://scalestack.ai

Revenue Engine Masters Podcast: https://scalestack.ai/podcast

Where to find Luiz Cent:

Website: https://latamcent.com/

Who We Hire: https://whowehire.org/

Meg Bear is the former President of SAP SuccessFactors, where she led a global 4,000+ person business past $2.5B in revenue with double-digit YoY growth. Before SAP, she spent two decades building enterprise software at Oracle, and today she serves as a public board director, investor, and advisor to companies reinventing work with AI.

In this episode, Meg reveals her frameworks for surviving the AI transformation as a CEO, why "intellectual humility" is the new operator superpower, and what boards are actually demanding from leadership in 2026.

What you'll learn:

- Why "the first rule of holes" applies to every CEO leading through AI transformation right now

- The exact 3-question framework Meg uses to coach CEOs into making their own jobs obsolete

- Why waiting on AI is "the worst of all postures" and how skeptics will be "very, very wrong"

- Why nervous system regulation is the hidden leadership skill nobody is talking about

- The hiring rule every founder should follow: hire smarter than you, hire for learning agility

- Why boards see revenue per employee as the new battleground for capital allocation

- How to hack your own curiosity even if it doesn't come naturally

- Why human connection still wins, but only with intentionality

Timestamps:00:00 Ex-SAP President Who Scaled SaaS to $2.5B: 3 Questions to Ask Before AI Replaces You01:12 Meet Meg Bear: From Oracle to SAP President01:53 Why Human Capital Became Human Experience03:16 The Cognitive Dissonance of Layoffs in HR05:00 Why 80% of CEOs Are Scared Right Now06:39 Make Your Job Obsolete Before Someone Does09:01 The 3-Question Framework for CEO Reinvention14:16 The Whiplash FOMO Moment in AI18:08 Big Companies vs Startups: Who Wins the AI Race21:19 Nervous System Regulation as Leadership25:13 What Boards Get Right About Hiring29:30 Why Engineers Now Cost 2X Their Salary34:31 Remote vs Hybrid: Which Org Performs Better37:39 Inventing the Future of Work40:56 Meg's #1 Hiring Rule for Founders

Where to find Meg Bear:Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/megbear/The Meg and Amy Show: https://www.youtube.com/@TheMegandAmyShowWebsite: https://www.megbear.com/

Where to find Luiz Cent:Website: https://latamcent.com/Who We Hire: https://whowehire.org/

Pablo Solare is the founder and CEO of Sprightful, a tech-enabled solar company he's been running for 10 years with just 4 humans and what he calls "hundreds" of AI agents. He relocated his family from Miami to Santa Cruz to be closer to the AI revolution and has built a fully remote operation with contractor teams across South Florida and core team members in Portugal and Colombia. In this episode, Pablo reveals his counterintuitive hiring philosophy, explains why he thinks the ratio of humans to AI agents will reach 1:10,000 within four years, and shares the exact tech stack his team uses to automate their CRM communications.

What You'll Learn:

- Why hiring someone with zero AI experience might actually be better than hiring AI-fluent candidates- The one trait Pablo values above all else when hiring: high agency and the self-motivating drive to see things through without getting stuck- His "3 months per year" framework for remote team alignment and why it's the sweet spot for retention- How to manage contractor teams who aren't great communicators by meeting them where they are with voice notes and Telegram- Why he'd rather spend CapEx on Teslas with full self-driving for employees than maintaining an office- His belief that remote work can always improve but in-office work has already peaked- How he built an AI agent that texts his team on Telegram when CRM deadlines are approaching and updates the database from their responses

Chapters:

00:00 Why This Founder Prefers Hiring People Who've Never Used ChatGPT | Pablo Solare

04:34 The remote work vs office debate and why adventure trumps efficiency

07:31 The 3-month rule for getting remote teams together in person

12:18 Managing contractor teams who don't communicate well

17:27 How AI agents transformed his CRM workflow with Monday and Telegram

21:11 Where humans still matter when AI can do almost everything

24:17 The 1 human to 10,000 agents prediction and the first billion-dollar solo company

28:25 Why you might want to hire people with zero AI experience

33:09 AI is like fire 2.0: we have no idea what the nuclear bomb version looks like

36:25 Robots installing solar and empowering human workers

40:03 Why you shouldn't fall in love with your AI agents

Where to find Pablo Solare:

Website: https://sprightful.com/

Instagram: @pab.sun

Twitter/X: @pabsun

Where to find Luiz Cent:

Website: https://latamcent.com/

Who We Hire: https://whowehire.org/

Stephen Banbury is VP of Marketing at ClearlyRated and has spent 20+ years leading marketing teams at enterprise companies including McAfee, Symantec, and Reputation. He's scaled teams from small nimble groups to organizations of 25,000+ people, and currently runs a lean remote marketing operation that leverages agencies and AI to punch above its weight. In this episode, Stephen shares why he deliberately hires people who are "all different" from each other, his framework for deciding between agencies and headcount, and why being "curious" about AI is no longer enough.

What You'll Learn:

- Why Stephen only hires people smarter than himself and how he learned to defer to experts in functions he doesn't master

- The difference between hiring for "craft" versus hiring for industry expertise and why he prioritizes the practice of marketing over vertical knowledge

- His rule for remote work success: never accept a meeting invitation without an agenda

- Why AI has taste problems and can't replace the creative spark that makes content resonate with buyers

- The critical distinction between being "customer-focused" and delivering true "customer experience"

- His framework for hiring agencies: find partners who treat your business like their own instead of managing multiple vendors

- Why candidates who don't ask questions during interviews reveal they're not truly interested in the role

Timestamps:

00:00 VP Marketing Reveals Why He Only Hires People Smarter Than Himself

01:35 Why hiring people smarter than you is the only way to scale

03:36 How Stephen learned to defer to experts in product marketing and operations

06:47 Self-starters only: the one trait that matters across every company size

09:08 AI in marketing: keeping headcount low without replacing anyone

10:36 Why AI doesn't have taste and the creative spark still comes from humans

14:08 The CX maturity model example: from PowerPoint to interactive tool in months

18:37 Customer-focused vs customer experience: the operational difference

22:00 Agencies vs headcount: how to decide where to place your dollars

28:03 Hiring mistakes: why cultural fit and chemistry matter more than skills

31:49 Advice for CMOs hiring their first global team member

34:45 Why marketing and the art and science of it keeps Stephen engaged after 20 years

Where to find Stephen Banbury:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephen-banbury-4237441/

His companies:

Emotive Brand https://emotivebrand.com/

ThunderClap: https://www.thethunderclap.com/

TripleDart: https://www.tripledart.com/

Stephen Banbury’s Podcast:

The CX Catalyst Podcast: https://www.clearlyrated.ai/podcastCX

& to take the maturity mode assessment:

Maturity Model™ Self Assessment Tool: https://www.clearlyrated.ai/cx-maturity-assessment

Where to find Luiz Cent:

Website: https://latamcent.com/

Who We Hire: https://whowehire.org/

Ryan Barry is the CEO of Appcues, a user engagement platform serving over 1,400 technology businesses worldwide. Before taking the helm at Appcues in March 2025, Ryan spent nearly 11 years at Zappi, co-authoring the best-selling book The Consumer Insights Revolution and scaling the company as President alongside founder Steve Phillips. In this episode, Ryan reveals the unconventional leadership frameworks he used to recruit an entirely new executive team without outside recruiters, why he refused to hire a chief of staff or executive assistant in favor of AI productivity tools, and the four non-negotiable traits he screens for in every single hire.

What You'll Learn:

- Why Ryan eliminated most one-on-ones from his calendar and what he replaced them with.

- The four traits he screens for in every hire: curious, adaptable, smart, and growth-minded.

- How he recruited a full executive team through crowdsourcing instead of executive search firms.

- Why he refused to hire an EA or chief of staff and used AI tools instead to force himself to learn the cutting edge.

- His framework for deciding which decisions need to "breathe overnight" versus which should be made immediately.

- The difference between coming in hot with passion versus assuming you know the answer in week two.

- Why he embeds team personality profiles and decision-making guides directly into company AI tools.

Chapters:

00:00 Trailer - Why This CEO Removed All One-on-Ones From His Calendar EP 8

01:03 Introducing Ryan Barry, CEO of Appcues

05:08 Why coming in hot fails most new executives

06:16 Breaking down silos in two hours instead of three weeks

08:41 How AI elevated support roles instead of replacing them

11:11 Recruiting executives without search firms

17:20 The four non-negotiable traits for every hire

21:04 Managing a geographically dispersed team across Latin America

27:48 How he manages energy and async work across time zones

31:22 Empowering teams to make decisions without approval

35:06 Why he removed most one-on-ones from his calendar

39:21 One piece of advice for first-time founders and leaders

Where to find Ryan Barry:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-barry-8354036/

Appcues: https://www.appcues.com/

Where to find Luiz Cent:

Website: https://latamcent.com/

Who We Hire: https://whowehire.org/

Annmarie Neal has spent 20+ years as Chief Talent Officer at Cisco, First Data, and Hellman & Friedman where she achieved an 85% success rate across 20+ CEO transitions. Now as Chief People Officer at Zendesk, she's transforming a $2B company into an AI-first organization while activating over 1,000 leaders. In this episode, she reveals the hiring frameworks, referencing strategies, and leadership playbooks that separate successful executive transitions from costly failures.

What You'll Learn:

- Why hiring people who "look and feel like you" is the biggest hiring mistake leaders make

- The 10-12 reference rule: Why 3 references will never give you the full picture

- The "vanilla ice cream walk" approach to convincing reluctant leaders to step up

- How to assess whether a CEO can scale through acquisitions and complexity

- Why the best successions start with strategy 3-5 years out, not solving today's problems

- The critical difference between hiring for roles vs. hiring for outcomes

- When to bring in your first talent/people hire as a founder (hint: earlier than you think)

Where to find Annmarie Neal:

LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/annmarie-neal-psy-d-b35aa9/⁠

Where to find Luiz Cent:

Website: ⁠https://latamcent.com/⁠

Who We Hire: ⁠https://whowehire.org/⁠

In this episode, we cover:

00:00 The hiring mistake most founders make but never talk about

02:16 The 85% success rate playbook for executive transitions

04:00 Assessing talent: identifying superpowers and kryptonite

07:45 What actually causes executive transitions to fail

09:12 The executive who surprised everyone and crushed it

12:24 Activating 1,000 leaders during a $10B transformation

19:54 What AI transformation actually requires from your talent function

28:21 Why replicating yourself is the biggest hiring trap

30:38 The voicemail hack that saves hours on reference checks

31:02 The one thing founders building teams need to hear