Leadership Development in the Age of AI with Kim Bach

Timecoded Guide:

[0:00] Start of episode

[01:29] Kim’s journey to entrepreneurship

[04:23] Founding Dailyhuman

[12:15] Dailyhuman as an AI coach

[17:27] AI fostering real relationships 

[19:07] Founder experience working with an SDO 

[24:24] Founder advice to make the most of an SDO

What were some challenges you witnessed throughout your career?

Throughout 25 years of in-org development, Kim witnessed many interrelational problems. She became an expert in seeing when conflicts start and began recognizing patterns. She asked herself a lot of questions: why do we lose good employees? How can we help people be better every day? While becoming an expert in making a change, she found that old org structures for learning and connecting were extinct. In starting Dailyhuman, she wanted to swim upstream, to see where problems were starting and to implement consistent, lasting solutions to pressing organizational issues.

“We're all relearning that our old structures for connecting and learning are actually extinct. And so our tools haven't caught up yet. And that's why I decided to become part of Dailyhuman.”

Founding Dailyhuman: an AI coach

Kim sought a way to implement solutions to boost foundational skills, human skills that we rely on every day—and found herself limited by the tools available to change behavior and implement long-lasting solutions. Kim joined Dailyhuman while the company’s founder, Josh Roenitz, turned to AI to build long-lasting connections. Kim says that Dailyhuman starts where most products stop. While piloting the program in the NFL Combine, they set up a readiness mindfulness lab and used the Socratic method in AI to coach people through building valuable mindset skills. They seek to make a lasting difference through incremental changes and by building measurable skills.

“You get an affirmation back, we have guardrails, we have ways we can help you improve your response. But the key is really in the repetition. And how we make meaning of our life really ends up being reflected in our behaviors. So AI is a huge part of it, it allows us to do it better, really, than most of us are capable of on our own.”

Experience working with an SDO like Softeq

After working with Softeq Venture Studio, Kim says that it would be difficult to imagine where Dailyhuman would be without it. Working with Softeq gave Kim intense access to experts who supported their growth and learning throughout the startup process. With this, came excellent engineers who played an integral role in the company’s founding and continue to foster their growth. On top of everything, Dailyhuman has also hit incredible milestones since working with Softeq—including hitting a projected one million in ARR. With an SDO, Dailyhuman has gained tremendous momentum.

 “It's hard to imagine where we would be without the venture studio. It's one thing to have a vision of the future and to really have the experience to be an expert in your field—but to take that and create a business out of it is an entirely different skill set. ”

Advice for founders utilizing an SDO

Kim’s first piece of advice for founders utilizing an SDO? Show up to events. All of them. “Don’t overthink it,” she says, “just show up.” Next, don’t assume a check is going to just be handed out. Working with an SDO is a long process. It’s about building relationships while listening and learning. Any accelerator provides the opportunity to show up and be a beginner again. Listen, absorb, and ask not only what they can do for you but what you can do for them. She says that the more value you give to the studio, the more it results in long-lasting relationships that compound over time.

“Relationships are the one thing that we all take with us, no matter what happens with our startups, and where we go, and how we change jobs, our relationships are the things we always bring.”