Get in front of founders scaling 7-fig service businesses

A podcast that uncovers how agency and consulting firms scale their delivery.

Apply to join the show
Host responds within 48 hours.
90K+
Founders follow on socials
$5M–$30M
Typical guest agency revenue
40+
Founders featured
Featured Guests
Stefanie Beach Kathryn Wilson Shoshana Winter Fernando Cao Tom Shapiro Brent Ridge Tom Coburn Will Harris
40+ founders have shared their playbook
On the Show Gilad Bechar
On the Show
Gilad Bechar
Bootstrapped his agency to 100 employees and made 5 acquisitions along the way.
Joined by founders of these companies:
Torro Media Elumynt Moburst Converge Marketing Stratabeat AdVenture
Recent guests

A few founders who've joined us

Gilad Bechar
Bootstrapped agency to 100 employees
Guest Highlights
Acquisitions5 in 6 years
ClientsGoogle, Uber, Samsung, Reddit
AITransformed agency to be AI-Native
Shoshana Winter
Took over a 60-person agency out of bankruptcy
Guest Highlights
RoleCEO of Converge
Team86 people, 3 continents
Prior25 yrs Audible, Dentsu, Merkle
Fernando Cao
Scaled GTM agency to $350k / month
Guest Highlights
PastPersonal-brand agency for $1B+ CEOs
ProofBuilt $1.7M in pipeline in 18 days
FocusAI-native B2B GTM
Kathryn Wilson
Bootstrapped a 35-person pharma agency
Guest Highlights
Brands24+ launched
Team35 FTE + 300 freelancers
ClientsNovo Nordisk, Apellis, Merz
Stefanie Beach
Manages $175M in ad spend across 62 brands
Guest Highlights
Growth763% in 3 years
Rankedon Inc. 5000
OriginBuilt post-layoff while raising her daughter
Tom Shapiro
Took an agency from $12M to $75M in 5 years
Guest Highlights
Speaker30+ engagements
ClientsIntel, GE, AT&T, UnitedHealthcare
WinMade $40M by mailing movie tickets
Dr. Brent Ridge
Built a $150M skincare brand from Goat milk
Guest Highlights
Revenue$150M+ in sales
Team220+ employees
BackgroundHarvard-trained MD, ex-Martha Stewart VP
Tom Coburn
Raised $92M for his SaaS. CEO of the Waking Up Meditation app
Guest Highlights
Raised$92M for Jebbit
ClientsNFL, Pepsi, Bank of America, L'Oréal
NowCEO of Waking Up
Will Harris
Drove 13 ecommerce exits. Biggest sold for $800M
Guest Highlights
Exits13 acquisitions
Biggest deal~$800M sale
ClientsNike, Nickelodeon, Jack Daniel's
Lori McDonald
Ex-NASA built an ecomm agency that drove $750M
Guest Highlights
OriginEx-NASA Shuttle Flight Controller
Client impact$750M revenue added (2015-23)
RecognitionInc. 5000 (twice)
This podcast is for you if you are...
The founder/CEO of a service business with recurring client delivery
Scaling from founder-led delivery into a real team, system, and operator layer
Willing to share the real story: what worked, what broke, and what you'd rebuild
Who's listening
Founders and operators building agencies, implementation firms, MSPs, and other delivery-heavy service businesses
Past product-market fit, now scaling the team and systems behind client delivery
Looking for practical playbooks: what to hire, what to automate, and what to redesign before quality breaks
About the show
This show isn't for every founder. It's for the ones willing to share what's working (and what isn't).

Every episode covers three things:

01
Your business modelHow you get customers and deliver outcomes without quality breaking.
02
What's worked to scaleThe hires, systems, delivery rhythms, and technology behind the wins.
03
What's not working nowThe delivery, hiring, or operating decisions you're wrestling with this quarter.
Guests on this show are founders who want to make the scaling path less lonely for the next person. When there's a genuinely useful match, Brian makes relevant founder introductions after the episode.
Recent content

Watch a recent episode

30–60 min interviews with each founder.

He Built an Ad Network During COVID (Then Signed 10,000 Brands)
He Built an Ad Network During COVID (Then Signed 10,000 Brands)
59:25
He Expected 9/11 to End His Business (Then Made $1M In A Week)
He Expected 9/11 to End His Business (Then Made $1M In A Week)
24:16
Tom Shapiro Made $40M… Mailing Movie Tickets
Tom Shapiro Made $40M… Mailing Movie Tickets
39:36
She Rebuilt a 60-Person Agency (Steal Her Turnaround Playbook)
She Rebuilt a 60-Person Agency (Steal Her Turnaround Playbook)
54:15
Fernando Hit $350K a Month (All From Twitter)
Fernando Hit $350K a Month (All From Twitter)
1:01:53
Kathryn Wilson Built a 35-Person Agency (By Ignoring Profit)
Kathryn Wilson Built a 35-Person Agency (By Ignoring Profit)
28:48
Someone Gave Brent 100 Goats (Didn't Know They'd Make Him $150M)
Someone Gave Brent 100 Goats (Didn't Know They'd Make Him $150M)
38:10
Stefanie Beach Built a 7-Fig Agency (From Her Hospital Bed)
Stefanie Beach Built a 7-Fig Agency (From Her Hospital Bed)
24:08
How Blake Runs a 100-Person Agency (With Only 5 Full-Timers)
How Blake Runs a 100-Person Agency (With Only 5 Full-Timers)
37:12
Competitors Undercut Jason Fishman With AI (He Still Raised $100M)
Competitors Undercut Jason Fishman With AI (He Still Raised $100M)
31:46
Want your story to be next?
Apply to be a guest
From LinkedIn

Check us out on LinkedIn

Each episode becomes 3 LinkedIn posts.

Today you can start a business by lunch. Test it by dinner. And kill it before it costs you $9. Where's my team? 3 people had quit before Stephane started. He called it a godsend. Hiring stopped David's business from scaling. So he built a system (& scaled to 20 employees). Lori grew e-commerce demand so fast. She ran out of product. Here's what that did to her team. His agency had 50 employees and growing revenue. One question revealed 3 problems he'd ignored for years. A fix that costs $500 at $1M costs $50,000 at $5M. Here's how Kathryn makes sure it never gets this far.
Want your story to be next?
Apply to be a guest
Scaling topics we cover

Where we go deep

Delivery systems

How founders keep client experience consistent as projects, accounts, and implementations multiply.

  • What broke first as client volume grew
  • The role that became impossible to scale without
  • How quality stayed consistent without the founder in every detail
People, process, and AI

Where founders create leverage with better hires, better operating rhythms, and carefully chosen automation.

  • The hire that unlocked growth, or the one you regretted
  • Where remote/global talent works, and where it doesn't
  • Where AI helped delivery, and where people still mattered
Our Mission

Founders learning from other founders

At a certain point in the founder journey, the only thing useful is an honest story from another founder.

The hire you swore you wouldn't make again. The SOP that broke as soon as you looked away. The bet on a new AI tool that you wished you made differently.

Our mission is to save that pain for other founders.

I want founders to join the pod and share their stories. What worked? What didn't? Share a story that you wish someone told you when you hit a hard time. Then whatever you're stuck on, you'll get an intro to a guest who went through it too.

No cost. Just founders helping founders.

Rising tides lift all ships.

Have a scaling lesson worth sharing?
Apply to be a guest
The host

Meet your podcast host

Brian O'Connor, host of Legends of Scale
Brian O'Connor
Founder, TalentHQ

I spent 6 years as a strategy consultant at Deloitte. Helped 35 of the biggest companies in the world solve their growth and operating problems. I can't say exactly which but think companies like Coca Cola, Salesforce, Facebook and you won't be too far off.

Then I left. I wanted to help real founders, not Fortune 500s.

So I started posting the frameworks I'd been using at Deloitte. A few years later: 90,000+ founders and execs followed along.

Those same founders asked for support growing their business. So I built TalentHQ. We've hired 140+ people for these businesses, especially the operators, marketers, and AI-enabled team members who help service businesses scale delivery.

This podcast is how we reach and support founders at scale.

Because rising tides lift all ships.

How this works

What to expect

From applying to your episode going live.

01
You apply
Tell us your story. We'll review to make sure it's a mutual fit for you and our listeners. At no cost.
02
We prep you
We send a short prep sequence with the audience, story arc, and likely questions so the conversation feels sharp but natural.
03
We record
One hour. One conversation. Done in one sitting.
04
We distribute
Your story becomes a long-form YouTube episode, 3 Shorts, and 3 LinkedIn posts. When there's a genuinely useful match, Brian may make relevant founder introductions after the episode.
Common questions

FAQ

How much does this cost?
It's entirely free. We're doing this to reach as many founders as possible and build a supportive community where founders help founders.
Is this a sales call?
No. The podcast is free, and there's no requirement or expectation to buy anything from TalentHQ. The purpose is a useful founder-to-founder conversation. If there's a relevant intro or follow-up after the episode, Brian will make it clear and optional.
Who's the right fit for this show?
Founder/CEO-level guests running service businesses with recurring client delivery — agencies, implementation firms, IT services/MSPs, and adjacent service companies. The best episodes usually involve a real lesson about scaling delivery, hiring, systems, client experience, or AI-enabled leverage.
Will I see the questions in advance?
Yes. The 4-part structure above is the spine of every interview. The prep series goes deeper into the specific questions a week before we record.
How long is the recording?
About an hour total. 10 minutes of pre-chat, 40 minutes of interview, 10 minutes to debrief and talk network intros.
Can I get edits or pull something I said?
Yes. Tell me at the end of the recording (or right after) and we'll cut it. We don't ship anything you'd want pulled.
What happens after the episode airs?
You're in the network. When I record with a founder solving a problem you flagged, I send the intro. When a future guest has the problem you've already solved, I send them your way. The show is the entry point. The community is the value.
Do I need to be "an AI person"?
No. The show is about leverage. Some guests use AI heavily; others scale mostly through people and process. We care about the lesson, not AI theater.
Apply to be a guest