Building And Growing

Hosted by Lucas Calleja

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Sep 2025

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Lucas interviews founders and operators to provide the community with key insights about building and growing during difficult economic times.

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August 24, 202653 min

#96 - Rebuilding LATAM construction software through an AI-driven ERP

About Lucas GlustmanLucas Glustman is co-founder and CEO of Lebane, the AI-powered management platform for real estate developers and construction companies. Before Lebane he built his career in fintech: he founded Flimper, which he sold to dLocal's management, then as VP of Business Development helped take dLocal to its 2021 Nasdaq IPO - the debut that made it Uruguay's first unicorn, valued at US$9.5 billion. In 2023 he founded Lebane with four partners to bring that experience to an industry still running on spreadsheets: today more than 400 developers and builders across Argentina and Mexico manage their projects on the platform, which includes Lena, its AI agent layer, and is backed by Atlántico and Zacua Ventures.About LebaneLebane is the end-to-end management platform for real estate developers and construction companies: a vertical ERP with an AI layer that replaces spreadsheets and adapted generic systems. It covers the full business lifecycle - from land acquisition to post-sale and investor management - with modules for purchasing, construction management, treasury, sales, accounting and investments. On top of that foundation runs Lena, the platform's AI layer: an assistant that answers over WhatsApp and Slack, plus a family of agents that process documents straight from the inbox, generate natural-language reports and track the commercial pace of each project. More than 400 developers and builders across Argentina and Mexico already run on Lebane, with implementations taking 2–3 months versus the industry's typical 6–18. The company's next step is Lebane Payments: moving project money - collections and payments - inside the same platform.

September 23, 202537 min

#95 - Leveraging AI to build an intelligent operating system for retirement and wealth providers

About Michael Watkins Michael Watkins is an internationally recognised leader in pensions, savings, and retirement technology, with more than two decades of experience spanning operations, product, governance, and technology. He has built, launched, scaled, and sold award-winning platforms across four continents, and is regarded as one of the foremost innovators reshaping the future of workplace wealth and benefits. About Aurem Aurem is the intelligent operating system for retirement and wealth providers. They deliver a full service technology platform that brings together providers products, data and processes into a single AI-native platform.

September 10, 202529 min

#94 - Transforming health and safety performance in high risk businesses

About Matthew Taylor Matthew Taylor is a seasoned business leader and transformation specialist with more than two decades of experience in high-risk industries. He is known for guiding organizations through complex challenges, enhancing safety, building stronger systems, and unlocking sustainable growth. As founder of Meta Transform , Matthew created the MetaSense 7D tool —a pioneering framework that enables organizations to transform across seven critical dimensions: leadership, culture, systems, safety, sustainability, innovation, and growth. By integrating culture and consciousness with operational excellence, the tool reveals untapped potential and drives measurable results. In his current role as Interim COO in the heavy lifting and transport sector, Matthew continues to apply this expertise to business transformation. Beyond the boardroom, he’s a devoted father of five—including two sets of twins—who brings the same passion for resilience and growth to family life. His mission is to empower C-suite leaders to align values with action, strengthen operational maturity, and achieve long-term performance and profitability.

August 11, 202526 min

#93 - Building institutional grade tokenisation infrastructure

About Matt OngMatt is the CEO and Founder of Ctrl Alt. Matt spent the first part of his career in investment banking, working across fund structuring, alternative investments and trading at Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse. Drawing on this experience, Matt has developed extensive knowledge of building financial products, structuring, regulation and asset raising.About Ctrl AltCtrl Alt is a leading tokenization infrastructure platform, combining blockchain technology with expert financial engineering to deliver tailored, compliant solutions in the alternative assets space. As of August 1, 2025, Ctrl Alt has tokenized over $325 million in assets, spanning real estate, private credit, funds, litigation finance and more.For further information, visit www.ctrl-alt.co or contact info@ctrl-alt.co.

July 14, 202548 min

#92 - Transforming auditing for the modern era

About Ian Ian Mitchell began his entrepreneurial journey in a modest double garage in East London, with little capital and while still recovering from a serious car accident. Despite the challenging start, he built a business that grew to employ over 1,000 people and earned multiple awards for growth and service excellence. Throughout this journey, Ian discovered the critical importance of building high-performing learning cultures—ones that are aligned, capable, and effective. After selling Direct Response, he turned his focus to his true passion: reimagining how organizations understand and improve performance using next-generation auditing techniques. This led to the co-founding of DeepFathom, a technology company at the forefront of audit innovation. About Deep Fathom With more than 25 years of experience in systems thinking, auditing, service innovation, and business process outsourcing, Ian has worked with global brands to design quality, risk, and compliance systems that go far beyond box-ticking. At DeepFathom, Ian leads the development of digital tools that blend behavioral science with data analytics, transforming audit from a backward-looking compliance exercise into a proactive driver of performance. He continues to explore the evolving role of quality in the age of AI, ESG, and agile organizations. In this podcast, Ian will challenge conventional audit thinking and share a bold vision for how quality professionals and business leaders alike can unlock greater value in fast-changing, complex environments.

June 16, 202535 min

#91 - Seed strappping to life changing outcomes

🎙️ Matt Williamson founded Vizzly (acquired by WPP) to help B2B SaaS companies build customer-facing analytics dashboards quickly, without compromising on flexibility. Traditional embedded analytics solutions were rigid and slow, forcing companies to choose between speed-to-market through no-code tools or spending months building custom solutions. Vizzly bridged this gap with a hybrid approach that enabled rapid deployment while maintaining developer control. 🚀 Vizzly demonstrated that founders can achieve significant exit outcomes without chasing headline fundraising numbers. The company maintained strong revenue per employee ratios with a minimal team, proving that raising modest seed funding and focusing on profitability can create attractive acquisition opportunities. This approach offers a middle path between bootstrapping and traditional venture scaling, enabling life-changing exits without the extended timelines and dilution of aggressive growth strategies. 🤖 WPP acquired Vizzly in October 2024 to integrate analytics technology into their comprehensive service offering for enterprise clients like DoorDash, HSBC, and Airbnb. As the world's largest advertising company, WPP's acquisition strategy focuses on building complete solutions that address every client need through in-house capabilities or strategic acquisitions. This enables them to deliver integrated marketing effectiveness and attribution platforms that individual agencies cannot match.

June 2, 202537 min

#90 - Reshaping GTM teams through AI-driven revenue operations

About Lewis Chawko Lewis Chawko is the founder of RevOps Consulting, with a unique journey from sales to revenue operations expertise. Starting as an SDR and progressing to AE, Lewis discovered his passion for operational problem-solving and self-taught essential RevOps tools in his free time. He transitioned from sales into a full-time RevOps role before launching his consultancy, where he now helps tech startups and scaleups optimise their revenue operations and scale their go-to-market teams. About RevOps Consulting RevOps Consulting specialises in revenue operations for sales and GTM teams at tech startups and scaleups. They focus on scaling go-to-market teams, optimising RevOps tech stacks, and helping businesses transition from inbound to outbound motions. Through fractional RevOps services, the consultancy helps growing companies streamline their revenue operations, align their systems, and build scalable processes that support sustainable growth.

April 29, 202543 min

#89: Diving into franchising: systems, growth and accounting essentials

About Phil Mowat With over 15 years in franchising, Phil joined Ashtons Franchise Consulting in 2019. As the first point of contact for new clients, Phil assesses their needs and creates tailored franchise development plans, then delivers franchise development work to help business owners turn their companies into successful franchise brands. Phil’s franchising career began in 2009, when he helped transform his sister’s makeup artist booking agency into a franchised business, moving operations from paper-based systems to digital processes and growing the network through recruiting and training franchisees. Before joining Ashtons, Phil worked with other franchise brands, gaining hands-on experience in building systems, supporting franchisees, and developing franchise networks. Phil brings deep insight into business growth, strategy, and franchise success About Ashtons Franchise Consulting #TheFranchiseDevelopmentSpecialists Since 1981, Ashtons Franchise Consulting has helped businesses grow through franchising, supporting brands from startups to global expansions. The experienced UK-wide team includes former franchisors and franchisees, offering practical, real-world insight at every stage of the franchise journey. Ashtons tailors its services to each client’s goals, budget, and pace-avoiding a one-size-fits-all approach. In recent years, three clients have been finalists for the British Franchise Association Emerging Franchisor Award, with Get A Drip (2023) and My Window Cleaner (2020) winning, and Radfield Homecare (2019) recognized as a finalist.

March 26, 202542 min

#88 - Delivering mega projects across the Middle East

🌍 Kostas Dimitros, a Greek senior professional in the construction industry with over 22 years of experience in the Middle East, shares his journey from Athens to Dubai. Kostas has worked with renowned companies such as Parsons, Bechtel, and Kerzner, delivering mega projects, developing comprehensive growth strategies and cultivating strong client relationships. Some of the large-scale projects include the ALBA Aluminum Smelter Expansion in Bahrain, the MINA Oil Tank Farm in Salalah, Oman and hospitality projects like the Atlantis Hotel and Theme Park on the Palm Jumeirah in Dubai and the Ferrari Theme Park on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi. Currently, he leads the Strategic Programs and Aviation Programs growth initiatives for Parsons in the EMEA region. 🏗️ The Middle East, particularly the UAE, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, has undergone significant transformation through mega projects in the last 30 years. Dubai and Abu Dhabi began by diversifying their economies beyond hydrocarbons, focusing on tourism and infrastructure development. This involved creating a tourist ecosystem with large hotels, residences, and the necessary infrastructure like power plants and water supply systems. Qatar followed suit with its preparations for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, while Saudi Arabia has embarked on groundbreaking giga projects such as NEOM and The Red Sea Project as part of its Vision 2030 initiative, as well as preparing for the 2034 World Cup. 👥 Stakeholder engagement and building trust is crucial in delivering these mega projects. Kostas emphasizes the importance of understanding the needs of various stakeholders, including those who run the cities before, during, and after project implementation. This involves stakeholder mapping, listening to their concerns, and having constructive discussions about their expectations and receptiveness to changes in their environment. Effective stakeholder management throughout the supply chain is essential for the successful delivery of these ambitious projects.

March 3, 202547 min

#87 - Energy transition: rebuilding the grid for renewables

About Paul Stefiszyn Paul Stefiszyn is a partner in ESP Consulting and an expert in electricity markets, energy trading, and risk management, with 25 years’ experience in industry and consulting in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and North America. Paul’s recent work has focused on supporting governments and system operators with market redesign to advance the decarbonisation of electricity systems. He also regularly advises both small and large energy companies on commercial strategy, risk control, performance measurement, and governance. Prior to joining ESP Consulting in 2010, Paul held a number of senior risk management positions with Nuon Energy (now Vattenfall), a vertically-integrated European energy utility. Before joining Nuon in 2005 he was a Vice President at MSCI, where he led the European operations of FEA, MSCI’s commodity analytics business, providing specialist software models for valuation and risk management in the energy industry.