On this week's episode of Inside Outside Innovation, we talk about portfolio entrepreneurship, how AI tools are transforming market research and new brain research that indicates adulthood starts later than you think. Let's get started.

Inside Outside Innovation is the podcast to help innovation leaders navigate what's next. Each week, we'll give you a front row seat into what it takes to grow and thrive in a world of hyper uncertainty and accelerating change. Join me, Brian Ardinger, and Miles Zero's Robyn Bolton. As we discuss the latest tools, tactics, and trends for creating innovations with impact. Let's get started.

Podcast Transcript with Brian Ardinger and Robyn Bolton

AI Driven Innovation Trends and Founder Mindset Shifts

[00:00:30] Brian Ardinger: Welcome to another episode of Inside Outside Innovation. I'm your host, Brian Ardinger, and with me, I have Robyn Bolton from Mile Zero. Welcome, Robyn.

[00:00:34] Robyn Bolton: Thank you. Great to be here.

Great to have you, again. This is episode 3 43 ish. We're excited to continue to talk about innovation. There's always something new and exciting to talk about.

[00:00:45] Brian Ardinger: Anything going on in your world this week?

[00:01:04] Robyn Bolton: I feel like this week I'm going to be spending at grading finals papers wrapped up my corporate innovation course at Boston College, and everyone submitted their finals and that's all great and they're done. And I'm now just looking at a stack of virtual digital stack of papers.

[00:01:21] Brian Ardinger: At Nelnet this week we've got our Spark, which is our monthly gathering of folks. We find some interesting project and give them opportunities to sit on stage and talk about what some of the new things that are building out there. That's an opportunity to get our movers and shakers in the same room and share what's going across the different business units. So we're always excited for our Spark this week. Those are some of the things that are happening in my world. 

[00:01:44] Robyn Bolton: I'll happily come out and go to your Spark event, and you can grade papers. 

[00:01:46] Brian Ardinger: You're welcome anytime. We've got a lot of things to cover today. We've got three articles that we've curated over the last week or so. The first one we want to talk about is everyone's a founder now and it's from every, and it's a YouTube channel, and it's an interview with Henrik Werdelin

Portfolio Entrepreneurship and AI Agents Reshaping Startups

And Henrik is a person who started Pre-Hype, started BarkBox, and he has got a new company called Audos. It's a platform that helps people use AI agents to turn ideas into profitable companies. This particular YouTube video in this interview was talking a lot about some of these new tools and how it's really changing the landscape of startups and can apply to corporate innovation as well. With these new tools, Henrick was talking about this idea of portfolio entrepreneurship, so the idea of a new breed of entrepreneurship that's shepherded in by AI.

Where founders build family of products or services around the same customer instead of like one moonshot idea. So rather than coming up with Facebook and building that out, there's an opportunity now for entrepreneurs to create maybe more single, double, triple types of companies around a core set of customers that they know and can work with.

And it's a variety of different projects and services that can serve that particular marketplace versus the traditional model of venture capital that we've seen out there kind of shooting for the moon. 

[00:03:02] Robyn Bolton: It's a really interesting video and I encourage people to go watch it. They talk about a lot in this video and you know, some of the ones that I wanna highlight, and you've already touched on this is one, what he's building with Audos. Going back to our last episode where we talked about the Mad Lib. I actually went over to Audos and you can fill in a Mad Lib for your business idea and I think in 10 minutes it built a fully functioning website, videos, everything. It was amazing. I have no idea how to edit any of it or do anything but like just the speed at which you could take a mad lib and create something that looked like a viable business was astounding.

Deep Customer Focus and the Rise of Multi Product Founders

He also talked about, as you mentioned, the importance of picking a target customer and one that you want to serve for 10 years. And he talked about with BarkBox, it was all about serving the dog owner, and most people would talk about, oh, well, you did BarkBox. Now do Meow Box, now do whatever box. And he's like, that wasn't going to work. They went from BarkBox to basically like airplanes for dogs to other things. And it was always the people who are gonna win in this new kind of world are the ones who go really deep on a very specific customer.

Then kind of where this all started of the portfolio entrepreneur. He did a great job calling out VCs. Mm-hmm. And saying, Hey, VCs will tell an entrepreneur you have to go all in on one idea. Don't you dare get distracted with a portfolio. And yet the VCs are there being like, here's our portfolio and is a great point. 

[00:04:39] Brian Ardinger: Yeah, and I'm seeing more and more folks, I've been having conversations about like startup ecosystems then. And it used to be where you'd have a players and they'd have to find a team and build out something from that perspective. And now an A player can use these platforms like ADOS to vibe code and kind of get things up and going. And they don't necessarily have to raise money.

They don't necessarily have to go through the 10 year journey to get to an exit before they're actually profitable in that. You know, these tools allow you to, if you have some insight, some access to customers, something like that, you can start quickly. You can start making progress and, you know, maybe you don't have the billion dollar exit, but a nice a hundred million dollar exit that you built yourself might be a nice little, way to play this particular game that wasn't possible necessarily before AI and some of the new tools and, no-code stuff that's available to you now.

AI Powered Personas and Synthetic Research in Market Insights

[00:05:28] Robyn Bolton: Yeah, I don't know too many people who would turn their noses up at a hundred million or even a $10 million exit. 

[00:05:33] Brian Ardinger: Zuckerberg did. But other than that, well.... Let's see. The second article on our list today is from HBR. Harvard always seems to put out some good stuff, but their article in the Harvard business reviews called the AI Tools that are Transforming Market Research.

This was an interesting take on how AI is impacting how research is done. And so the interesting things that they're talking about are some of the new ways that people are using AI to create a variety of different personas and a digital twins and using the AI as a way to interact and kind of mimic or facilitate what used to be something you'd have to do with actuarial customers or creating the real thing before you could actually get some feedback on it. And AI is allowing you to create these synthetic personas and digital twin types of scenarios that speed up the learning process when it comes to working with customers. 

[00:06:27] Robyn Bolton: Yeah, this is another topic I think like all things AI at this point where people are all in and like, yes, this is future. And other people are like, absolutely not. The reality is it's and not, or. I've used surveys, I've used synthetic personas with surveys, and it is awesome. Absolutely awesome in terms of streamlining, developing the survey, testing the survey, making sure that you have the questions phrased the right way. The answers phrased the right way. And I'm still sending the survey to people.

[00:06:58] Brian Ardinger: To real people. 

[00:07:00] Robyn Bolton: Exactly. So it's a great tool to speed things and to hone your questions, develop richer personas, but you need humans in there. You need actual people to inform the decisions you're about to make.

AI Role Play, Skills Training, and Negotiation Simulations

[00:07:14] Brian Ardinger: I have a friend who's starting a AI startup that is focused on, these kind of synthetic personas, but more for, let's say, a salesperson and to role play particular scenarios. Or you put in, let's say you're a lawyer and you are going into a negotiation. You put in the profile tactics that you want to get out of it. Who's going to be in the meeting? And based on those profiles, it can interact and have a conversation. So it can almost practice that negotiation or practice that particular scenario.

And I think that's going to get better and better. And I think as long as you use it as a training tool rather than the be all end all solution, you're probably better off on that path versus relying on AI as the only way to shortcut some of the things you really have to do in the real world. 

[00:07:56] Robyn Bolton: And especially using it to role-play someone who hates role-play. Because I'm like, oh please, let me just expose my ignorance and how bad I am at this thing to somebody else. You know, it makes it a lot safer because whatever. This AI isn't going to judge me. I'm much more willing to role-play, you know, practice sales pitches, things like that. And so, there's a potential for some real upskilling with these synthetic personas. And so that's not to be dismissed. 

[00:08:22] Brian Ardinger: And I think the final point about the article is how is this going to change your ability to actually do research? It used to be, I mean, market research is not cheap, and so you know, can you get to 20% of the answer or 80% of the answer where you would've had to spend a lot of more time on resources to go down that particular path. So that alone will change the marketplace for market research and could change the game too. 

[00:08:43] Robyn Bolton: And with the pace that everything's moving, if you can, something as simple as drafting a survey. If you can go from first survey draft to putting it in field in a week versus it used to take a month, all the better.

Brain Development Research and Innovation Implications for Learning

[00:08:57] Brian Ardinger: Excellent. All right. Well, the last article is kind of a fun one. We threw into the newsletter more from the standpoint of we're always looking for interesting new scientific research and new things that we're seeing out there. And this article is called Brain Has Five Eras, scientists Say With Adult Mode, not starting until early thirties.

And this is from The Guardian. Scientists have actually identified five major epics of human brain development and one of the most comprehensive studies to date on how neural wiring changes from infancy to old age. And the study looked at brain scans of 4,000 people. Age from one to 90 and map their neural connections on how they evolved during their lives.

And that revealed that there are five broad phases that folks go through. Split up into these four pivotable turning points where the brain reorganizes itself in such a way and gives you different categories. So the first area was from zero to nine. Then it was 32 was the second age bracket change, 66 and then 83. Now, was this a kind of an interesting look at science and how the brain itself is changing and evolving as we age? 

[00:10:03] Robyn Bolton: I will admit that the first thing I did is I read this article was think about where was I when I was 32, because apparently that was my peak. It's unfortunate to say, but I'm like, oh yeah, that was a good age. That was a good year that, that actually may have been peak.

You know, also really interesting. My mom was a nursery school teacher. She, you know, specialized in early childhood development and she always had this rule of like, you kind of had until age five to really mold the kid and then you had a less influence after that.

But she also said, you know, age, like, don't make any major decisions, iE don't get married before 26. So, she kind of naturally had these two points. So it was just interesting to read that like mom was onto something. She was a few years off. But you know, there is kind of these age milestones around brain development.

Lifelong Learning, Cognitive Change, and Innovation Capacity

[00:10:52] Brian Ardinger: It's something interesting and it'll be interesting to see how this plays out as well in different formats. I think about social media and how it's brain-rotting ourselves, and is that going to change the wiring of the brain? We'll find that out as well. 

[00:11:02] Robyn Bolton: I do wonder how much you can influence this, right? We know from other social studies that the more active you are, the more relationships you have that kind of keeps your brain younger. Maybe my brain is 32 now. Maybe I'm at peak now. I'm going to hope for that. 

[00:11:18] Brian Ardinger: Well, 66 is coming up. So, our last section is the tactics to try. Do you want to go first this time?

Innovation Tactics to Try and Creating Magical Moments

[00:11:24] Robyn Bolton: So this is actually inspired by the video with Heinrich Werdelin, where he talked about one of the things that he did several years ago, is he kind of made this list of, it was magical moments and basically he's kind of very specific everyday moments that brought him a lot of joy. So like walking to work across the Brooklyn Bridge.

Being at a brainstorming session with his team. So getting very, very specific on that. And so he developed this list of these kinds of magical everyday moments. And then when he was at a time where he had two competing job offers, one that looked really prestigious, quite high paying, and the other that, you know, it was great, but it wasn't, you know, fancy.

And he was able to look at them through the lens of these magical moments and realize that the big fancy one wouldn't have any of those magical moments, and so it made it a lot easier to kind of turn that down and go with the one he went with. And I just thought, what an interesting and important way to kind of use, not just for if you're juggling job offers, but to like really just kind of assess how you're spending your time and if the work you're doing is meaningful.

And I'm going to work on making a list of my very specific magical moments. The moments that bring me joy and, and the work. And see what that means. See what that holds for 2026.

[00:12:43] Brian Ardinger: That's awesome. Well, that's a great segue because my tactic tries about magical moments, and I want everybody to kind of take out their calendar right now. Swipe to Monday, April 13th, 2026, and block it off. Why? Because it's, this is going to be the official launch of the seventh Inside Outside Innovation Summit.

Those who follow us for a while know that every year or so we come out with our summit, bring folks into Lincoln, Nebraska to have conversations about the world of startups and innovation. This summit is going to be on Monday, April 13th, and for 2026, we're going to be hosting it at the Sheldon Museum of Art.

The theme is going to be the art and science of innovation. We're going to have over 20 speakers, a gallery of innovation that's going to showcase startups and corporate innovation projects. Plenty of opportunities to mix and mingle with other fellow change makers out there and, and podcast guests and hosts and fans from around the world.

And so, whether you think in color or code, or theory design, you know, we welcome you to come over to Lincoln, Nebraska to mix with the other builders, makers, movers, shakers, and founders and creators. Around the Inside outside universe. Head over to IO2026.com. You can buy early bird tickets, you can learn about sponsors. You can follow along as we announce new speakers and more information as it comes.
And really excited about the next year, the next opportunity. And hopefully you can join us at IO2026.

Closing Thoughts on Innovation, AI, and Community Building

[00:14:04] Robyn Bolton: The date is blocked on my calendar, and I can guarantee folks having attended previous IO events, it will be full of magical moments.

[00:14:12] Brian Ardinger: That's another episode of Inside Outside Innovation. Look forward to next time when we get together to talk about all the things that are happening in the world of innovation. We'll see you next time.

[00:14:30] Robyn Bolton: See you next time.

[00:14:45] Brian Ardinger: That's it for another episode of Inside Outside Innovation. Today's episode was produced and engineered by Susan Stibal. If you want to learn more about our teams, our content, our services, check out insideoutside.io or if you want to connect with Robyn Bolton, go to MileZero.io, and until next time, go out and innovate.


Articles Discussed

Everyone’s a Founder Now - Every with Henrik Werdelin

The AI Tools That Are Transforming Market Research - HBR

Brain Has Five ‘Eras’, Scientists Say – With Adult Mode Not Starting Until Early 30s - The Guardian