Dennis Steele

Co-Founder of @PodiumHQ

[Podium @PodiumHQ]

Podium increased our overall engineering output by 10x over the last two years.

To get there, we completely rebuilt our SDLC to be AI-native while supporting hundreds of millions in revenue.

A few questions we had to answer to get here:
- If code is no longer the constraint to development, what is?
- What has to change when your entire SDLC was built around a bottleneck that no longer exists?
- What does it take to increase engineering output by 10x?

This is our first post in a four-part series showing what an AI-native SDLC actually looks like in practice, not in theory:

→ https://t.co/w04xOz4c13

#SoftwareEngineering #AIEngineering #Podium #SDLC

[Gokul Rajaram @gokulr]

BUILD YOUR OWN SOFTWARE FACTORY

The best companies in the world are all building their own software factories, using a combination of first party and third party tools.

The software factory is a set of background coding agents running in the cloud. Anyone at the company, engineering or otherwise, can invoke it from their phone or laptop. Different agents spec out the feature, submit a PR, do the review, and merge it into the target branch. (With the right human approvals based on the repo)

As @ericwilliamrea, CEO of @PodiumHQ , says: “one of our customers was having a problem; I tagged our software factory in the feedback on Slack; it went and cut a PR and built it and 15 minutes later we had a fix”.

CEOs: THIS is the best way to get your entire team - your PMs, designers, sales, marketers, execs - involved in the product development process.

Put a small dedicated team on building and continually improving your own software factory. The improvement in your team’s product velocity will be palpable.

[Garry Tan @garrytan]

Podium is a case study in how powerful it is to take your existing SaaS customers and enable AI agents for them

[Dennis Steele @steele32]

@JasonrShuman I think every AI native SaaS company will need to become the system of record if they want to win. Agents that don't have native access to the data and workflows will inherently be limited as we go.

[Jon Fortt @jonfortt]

I speak with @PodiumHQ CEO @ericwilliamrea about reaching $100M in AI agent ARR in under 24 months. https://t.co/6J0Tp24dd4

[Dennis Steele @steele32]

I remember the 2023 conversation where we decided to bet the company on this. It felt risky at the time.

It’s wild to see how far we’ve come and how ready SMBs are to start hiring AI employees.

The future looks pretty clear now: the companies with the best agents will win.

But great agents don’t do human-level work on their own. They need real systems underneath them. Fortunately, we’d spent the last decade building that foundation.

Anyone can build a compelling AI demo.

The hard part is building agents that do real work, handle edge cases, use tools correctly, and get better when you coach them.

That’s the thing we’re building.

[Eric Rea @ericwilliamrea]

We just crossed $100M in AI agent ARR in under 24 months.

Not because of a viral launch or AI hype.
But because of a crazy bet we made in 2023.

At the end of 2023, over 60k local businesses were using @PodiumHQ to centralize their leads and customer communication into one platform.

It’s a great product. Customers convert more leads and make more money with it.

But one reality became impossible to ignore:

Our customers’ biggest constraint isn’t software. It’s staffing.

→ 75% annual turnover
→ 30% of leads come after hours
→ Every missed call can be $20,000+ in lost revenue

Business owners don’t care about software.
They care about making money.

And the best software in the world doesn’t matter if there aren’t enough people to run it.

So we built Jerry, the perfect user of our own platform.

Not a chatbot. An AI employee that uses Podium to:
- Qualify and schedule every lead
- Handle objections and follow up
- Learn through natural-language coaching
- Work 24/7

Demos are easy.
Real AI employees are not.

To work in the real world, AI has to think, act, understand context, and use tools.
It has to handle thousands of edge cases every day.
It has to be coachable. Like a human.

That leap is enormous.

Agents aren’t a feature. They’re the foundation.

That’s why we rebuilt Podium as an AI-first system of agents.

Today:
- 10,000+ AI agents live in production
- AI now outperforms humans in many jobs
- $100M+ in AI agent ARR, and accelerating

This is still day one.

The future isn’t software. It's AI employees that do the work and unlock growth for businesses.

We’re early in building what we believe will become the most impactful AI employee ecosystem for the $3T SMB market.

We’ve seen 300% year-over-year AI revenue growth and we’re just getting started.

[Dennis Steele @steele32]

@bwarrn @_cat_turner This is extra true in SMB. Most owners don’t want “AI tools” — they want work to disappear.
We’ve deployed 10,000+ AI agents that are already handling human-level frontline tasks for SMBs, and it still feels early.

[Eric Rea @ericwilliamrea]

Big news at @PodiumHQ today — we just launched a major upgrade to our AI employee: Jerry 2.0.

This is the most capable and customizable AI on the market, built to do one thing: make our customers more money.

Across the businesses we work with, we’ve learned the biggest constraint isn’t software. It’s people. Labor is expensive and inconsistent. Most teams can’t respond to every lead, call, or message 24/7, let alone follow up proactively. Missed opportunities are costly.

More than 10,000 rooftops already use our AI employees to capture leads, book jobs, close sales, and handle complex customer scenarios around the clock. The impact is massive: customers see 30% revenue uplift.

With Jerry 2.0, we’re raising the bar again, helping businesses scale and remove constraints that were previously impossible.

We built the best off-the-shelf AI employee for every industry we serve, optimized for lead conversion. But every business is different, so we also built the ability for owners to fully customize their AI using plain English. You can coach it to communicate like you and perform like your best rep. You stay in complete control and get more done.

Here’s what’s new:
• Out of the box expertise trained on your industry from day one
• Trainable in plain English. Adjust tone and playbooks just like you would a human employee
• Versatile enough to handle every scenario your business encounters
• AI Studio makes Jerry’s reasoning transparent and gives owners full control to steer him toward the right responses

If your business depends on speed, consistency, and converting every opportunity, this is the best possible agent for you.

We’re just getting started. Check out all of Jerry's new capabilities today.

https://t.co/lRoCCipf4Y

[Car Dealership Guy @GuyDealership]

A.I. Expert: Rise of the A.I. employee in car dealerships

• Hack to convert 99% of customers
• Raising $420M for the future of A.I.
• Why size matters for language models and more!

My conversation with @ericwilliamrea, CEO of @PodiumHQ:

https://t.co/G0yM0e7xyV

[Tom Loverro @tomloverro]

IT'S TIME FOR OFFENSE. We’re on the cusp of a Great Reawakening for startups. Companies that survived the Mass Extinction need to move decisively or risk being beaten by competitors. Here’s what’s changed & how to get *responsibly* aggressive.🧵/1
https://t.co/uVjXLYJY9N

[Dennis Steele @steele32]

New Podium Survey Illustrates Profound Impact of Online Reviews on Businesses https://t.co/xOgOFdOuXX via @YahooFinance

[Dennis Steele @steele32]

Podium Launches First-ever State of Online Reviews https://t.co/YYA8gdFEcU via @joneyre

[Dennis Steele @steele32]

Your startup won't succeed just because it's a great idea https://t.co/JcwHq4seg4

[Dennis Steele @steele32]

SEO Marketing for Doctors | 4 Must-have Strategies https://t.co/81l2FXu5Vs

[Dennis Steele @steele32]

3 Proven Tips to Fix Your Negative Online Review Problem by @NicoDDato http://t.co/WV6EwgXWbE @B2Community #marketing #SEO #socialmedia

[Dennis Steele @steele32]

Google Reviews: A Small Business Local SEO Secret by @NicoDDato http://t.co/68myoUUC2R via @B2Community

[Dennis Steele @steele32]

3 Sure Signs Your Business Needs SMS Software http://t.co/1hZZZimf2K #SMB #marketing #smallbusiness

[Dennis Steele @steele32]

5 easy SEO secrets for dental practices http://t.co/OxYWcSuGIx #dental #seo

[Dennis Steele @steele32]

Hospitals and Clinics: Turn Positive Patient Experience Into Online Reviews http://t.co/GT6mbc0eqq

[Dennis Steele @steele32]

Podium Blog - Online Reviews and Local Search - Podium - Online Review and Local Search Blog http://t.co/ldjERFyfBO