Building software is easier than building trust.

In this episode of The Warm-Blooded Founders, Christopher Sherrick sits down with Stephen Simons, CEO of Restyn., for a conversation about what it means to lead with intention in a world increasingly shaped by software and automation.

Stephen brings decades of experience as a software architect, business executive, and team builder, working across startups and global organizations. His approach is rooted in faith, customer focus, and a belief that strong businesses are built by people who care deeply about how they work, not just what they ship.

Together, they explore how founders and leaders can build meaningful software development businesses without losing sight of values, relationships, and responsibility. Stephen shares what it looks like to lead a BLESSED life at work, one grounded in purpose, service, and accountability, even as teams scale and systems grow more complex.

The conversation also digs into the role of AI in modern organizations. Rather than chasing replacement narratives, Stephen offers a perspective on how technology can support people, strengthen decision-making, and create better outcomes without eroding trust or humanity inside teams.

This episode is for founders, operators, and technology leaders who want to grow responsibly, lead with clarity, and build systems that serve both customers and the people behind the work.

Topics covered include:

1. Building a meaningful software development business

2. Leading a BLESSED life at work

3. Humanizing AI without replacing people

A thoughtful conversation about leadership, technology, and staying grounded while building in a software-first world.

Noelle London has spent her career working at the intersection of startups, talent, and economic impact, from scaling innovation programs for cities to helping early-stage companies connect with capital, talent, and enterprise partnerships.

Today, she is the founder and CEO of Illoominus, a people insights platform built to solve a problem she saw across every organization she worked with; HR tools that collect data but fail to translate it into something leaders can actually use.

On The Warm-Blooded Founder Show, Christopher Sherrick speaks with Noelle about what it takes to move from supporting other founders to fully committing to building something of your own.

This episode explores:

1. Founding Origin And Stepping Into Full Commitment

2. Forming The Early Team

3. Pivoting Amid Market Forces

Noelle’s journey reflects what many founders feel but rarely say out loud, the tension between helping others build and deciding it is finally your turn to step forward.

This episode is for founders and operators who are carving out their own path and learning to adapt in real time.

Be sure to check out https://lnkd.in/dG272Eup

Every founder has a moment that breaks the plan and forces a new one.

For Shivani Dhamija, that moment happened the week she arrived in Canada.

She came with a postgraduate degree and the belief that she would land a leadership role immediately. Instead, she found herself earning $10.40 an hour, caught between disappointment, culture shock, and the reality of starting over without a network, a roadmap, or certainty.

What happened next is the reason she leads one of the most recognized food brands in Atlantic Canada.

One meal she cooked for one person sparked what eventually became Shivani’s Kitchen, now stocked in Walmart, Costco Wholesale, Sobeys, Superstore, and restaurants across the country. Her story is built on resilience, grit, and the willingness to pivot long before success feels guaranteed.

On this episode, Christopher Sherrick sits down with Shivani to explore the turning points founders rarely talk about in public:

1. Recovering from setbacks and finding your footing again

2. Building financial understanding when money feels tight

3. Pivoting after failure without losing your identity or momentum

Shivani’s honesty and experience cut through the noise. She built a national brand from a moment of uncertainty, and her perspective will resonate with anyone who has had to rebuild, rethink, or restart.

If you are navigating your own pivot or learning to rise after a hit, this conversation will give you something real to hold onto.

Jessie Lizak sat down with Tonotop founder Christopher Sherrick for a powerful conversation about the mission, the breakthrough moments, and the entrepreneurial journey behind one of the most compelling innovations in hearing health.Chris opens up about the origins of Tonotop, the challenges he’s solving in the industry, and what’s ahead for the company. This candid founder-focused episode offers insight, inspiration, and a behind-the-scenes look at what it really takes to build a meaningful health-tech venture.

Billions are being lost inside enterprises every year, not through obvious failures, but through quiet inefficiencies in how research, knowledge, and decision-making workflows are handled.

Mel Morris CBE, CEO of Corpora.ai, joins Christopher Sherrick on The Warm-Blooded Founder Show to unpack how broken research systems, scattered data, slow knowledge retrieval, and disconnected decision loops have become one of the most expensive and overlooked leaks in modern companies.

With Corpora.ai, Mel is building what he calls the first scientific frontier research platform, designed to surface hidden insights, cut research time from hours to seconds, and give leaders a way to make clear decisions backed by real, attributable data.

This episode explores:

1. How Broken Research Workflows Quietly Drain Billions from Enterprises

2. The Real Cost of Misaligned Data and Decision-Making

3. Rethinking Knowledge Workflows with AI to Make Faster Decisions

This conversation is built for founders, product leaders, and operators who want to stop losing time and capital to hidden inefficiencies and start treating research and knowledge flow as a core growth system, not an afterthought.

Tina Fleming has spent more than a decade leading strategy at the intersection of content, media, and AI.

As Senior Director of AI Optimization at Avenue Z, she helps brands get found and cited in AI answer engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, and Claude, turning emerging technology into real visibility and measurable impact.

This week, Christopher Sherrick sits down with Tina to explore what it means to build authority and trust in a digital landscape reshaped by AI, shifting buyer behavior, and the rise of social commerce as a core sales channel.

The conversation dives into:

1. Executive Leadership and Motivation

2. Integrating AI Into Your Business

3. Winning the New Era of Brand Visibility

Tina brings a product leader’s perspective, defining Avenue Z’s company-wide AI strategy, building governance and guardrails, and leading teams through innovation that actually ships safely.

Her approach blends technical understanding with a deep sense of responsibility, helping brands not only adapt to the AI era but lead it ethically and effectively.

This episode speaks to founders and marketing leaders who want to understand how to adopt AI with intention, stay visible in new digital ecosystems, and scale trust as fast as technology.

This isn’t one of those startup stories wrapped in a bow.

Rick Bentley built his first company in 1998. Raised in a down market. Sold in a tougher one. He’s been through crashes, mergers, warzones, and boardrooms. His co-workers included Andy Grove and Larry Page. And he’s still at it.

This episode is for anyone who’s been up at 3am wondering if the thing they’re building is going to survive the next round of hits. Because Rick? He’s taken most of them, and kept going.

We’ll get into:

1. Crowdfunding vs VC's.

2. Developing your own AI instead of using others

3. How do you really find product-market fit?

No performative storytelling. No “grindset” fluff. Just real talk with someone who’s done the hard thing longer than most people have been in the game.

This conversation will challenge how you think about funding, tech, risk, and resilience.

The investing landscape is changing fast. From AI-driven insights to new tools like ETFs and investment apps, the future of finance looks very different than it did even a few years ago.

On this episode of The Warm-Blooded Founder Show, Chris is joined by Jack Fu, CEO & Co-Founder of Draco Capital Partners and Draco Evolution. Jack has built his career at the intersection of investing and innovation, guiding businesses and investors toward smarter, more sustainable growth strategies.

Together we’ll explore:

→ AI-Driven Investing: Shaping the Future of Finance

→ Founder Journey: Creating and Scaling an Investment App

→ Investor Tools: ETFs and Strategies for Market Uncertainty

If you’re interested in where technology and finance are headed, and how to apply these strategies in your own investing or business journey, this is a conversation you won’t want to miss.