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Utopia Decision Room

Utopia Decision Room

Von: Gina Kimiza Tan
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Utopia Decision Room is a podcast about building a software company in the US — the calls, the pivots, and the decisions founders usually make alone. Every week, I sit down with one founder and unpack one decision that changed how they run their business. Hosted by Utopia Club.Gina Kimiza Tan
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  • E2: Why high performers stay single

    E2: Why high performers stay single
    May 21 2026
    In Episode 02 of The Decision Room — the Utopia Club podcast for software founders scaling in the US — Sonny Uppal, founder of Laguna, sits with the contradiction at the centre of his own company. He spent a decade at Citadel and Bold Trading building systems to strip emotion out of financial decisions. Then he built a dating app whose entire thesis is that emotion is the one signal existing apps have never been able to model.The Decision Room is hosted by Gina Kimiza, founder of Utopia Club. Every episode: one founder, one decision, one pivot — told by the founder who made it.Sonny read the SEC filings on Match Group and Hinge. He went undercover with matchmakers charging $5,000 a date. Then he built a psycholinguistic model that reads a person's deeper psychology from three questions, back-tested it on long-term couples, and watched users describe the output as "eerily accurate." Women, who swipe right on men 4% of the time on Tinder and Hinge, swipe right 37% of the time on Laguna.What we cover:→ Why Tinder, Hinge and Bumble have no real moat→ What Sonny found in their SEC filings→ The $5,000-per-date matchmaking industry, from the inside→ Psycholinguistic modeling: three questions, deep compatibility→ Why "eerily accurate" beats Hinge's "secret sauce"→ The 1-match-per-month reality for the average man on Hinge→ The 4% to 37% jump on Laguna — a 9x lift→ The photo gender-gap: 100% of women care, 0% of men do→ How women can spot a serious guy in the top 10%→ Why power couples often have more friction→ Genesis, Laguna, Vibescape: one engine, three markets→ The four-dimensional cold start problem unique to dating→ Why distribution beats product in 2026For software founders building in the US, non-US founders crossing into the US market, B2B operators, investors tracking deal flow, and partners in the GTM, EOR, and founder-network space.Chapters:00:00 — Cold open: the Citadel quant who bet on emotion00:32 — Quant trading at 20, the pivot to AI ventures02:08 — Why the Tinder–Hinge–Bumble oligopoly has no moat03:33 — What the SEC filings revealed04:31 — Undercover on $5,000-per-date matchmakers05:35 — Psycholinguistic modeling: three questions06:11 — Back-testing on long-term couples07:30 — Why "eerily accurate" beats "secret sauce"09:30 — Why Sonny is the one fixing this11:05 — The three C's of lasting relationships11:54 — Arranged marriages in the US12:18 — Have you used Laguna yourself? The fiancée story13:25 — New York dating and 1 match per month15:08 — Why men are stuck in the bottom 80%18:25 — 4% to 37%: why women swipe 9x more on Laguna21:55 — The photo gender-gap nobody talks about24:35 — Designing for long-term: Laguna's survivorship bias26:15 — Dating as a founder: the emotional budget problem29:25 — How women spot a serious guy in the top 10%34:08 — Compatibility and ambition: why power couples fail36:36 — Genesis, Laguna, Vibescape: one engine, three markets41:14 — The four-dimensional cold start problem43:55 — Getting the first hundred users44:30 — Who Sonny calls for hard decisions45:33 — Distribution beats product in 2026About Utopia Club:A private network for software founders building or entering the US market. Curated peer access, monthly decision pods, 200+ software founders. Founded by Gina Kimiza. → Apply: utopia-club.comAbout The Decision Room:The Utopia Club podcast. One founder. One decision. One pivot in the US market — told by the founder who made it. Hosted by Gina Kimiza.→ Newsletter: fuacollective.substack.comAbout the guest:Sonny Uppal is the founder of Laguna, an AI-native dating app built on psycholinguistic modeling. Laguna sits inside Genesis, his predictive social science company, alongside Vibescape. Previously quant at Citadel and Bold Trading. Based in New York.→ Follow Sonny: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sonny-uppal-7b74b122→ Follow Kim: www.linkedin.com/in/ginakimiza
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    45 Min.
  • E1: Why this founder won't let AI do the math (and what he built instead)

    E1: Why this founder won't let AI do the math (and what he built instead)
    May 20 2026

    In Episode 01 of The Decision Room — the Utopia Club podcast for software founders scaling in the US — Hisham Juneidi, founder of⁨ ⁨‪@Quotix-ThePricingLayer‬, explains the architecture mistake almost every AI startup is making, and the system he built to fix it.The Decision Room is hosted by Gina Kimiza, founder of Utopia Club, a private network for software founders building or entering the US market. Every episode is one founder, one decision, one pivot — told by the founder who made it.In this conversation, we go deep on AI hallucination, LLM math accuracy, and why building B2B products entirely inside AI creates a "black box" customers won't tolerate. Hisham splits AI from the calculation engine — and explains why every software founder building with LLMs should be making the same call.Quotix is an AI-powered quoting and pricing engine for B2B service businesses, currently in early deployment with HVAC and property management companies.

    What we cover:→ Why AI hallucinates on math (and what's happening under the hood)→ The dual-engine architecture: AI for reasoning, separate engine for calculations→ Why "black box" AI is unsellable to B2B businesses→ The 2-year agency detour (Edge Node) that led to Quotix→ How Hisham found his ICP — and why agencies, not end customers, are the right wedge→ The 70-80% of HVAC businesses he'll never sell to→ Solo founder uncertainty and how he runs without a fixed schedule→ What he'd do differently if he started over tomorrow

    The Decision Room is a podcast for software founders building in the US, non-US founders crossing into the US market, B2B operators, investors tracking deal flow, and partners in the GTM, EOR, and founder-network space.


    Chapters:00:00 — Cold open: "AI should not touch the math"00:45 — Who Hisham is and what Quotix does03:20 — The architecture decision: splitting AI from calculations08:15 — Why "black box" AI doesn't work for business products12:40 — Edge Node: the 2-year detour to Quotix17:30 — Finding the ICP: from generic agency to HVAC pricing22:10 — Why he targets agencies, not end customers26:00 — Solo founder uncertainty29:15 — What he'd do differently31:30 — Kim's close


    About Utopia Club:Utopia Club is a private network for software founders building or entering the US market. Members get curated peer access, monthly decision pods, and a closed community of 200+ software founders. Founded by Gina Kimiza.→ Apply: utopia-club.comAbout The Decision Room:The Decision Room is the Utopia Club podcast. One founder. One decision. One pivot in the US market — told by the founder who made it. Hosted by Gina Kimiza.→ Decision Room newsletter: fuacollective.substack.comAbout the guest:Hisham Juneidi is the founder of Quotix, an AI-powered quoting and pricing platform for B2B service businesses. CS at Virginia Tech, Data Science at Fairfield University. Previously ran Edge Node, an AI automation agency. Based in Connecticut.


    → Follow Hisham on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/hisham-juneidi-590828170→ Follow Kim on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ginakimiza
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    31 Min.
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