In this episode, Jeff Mains sits down with Martin Lesperance, an engagement specialist and interactive keynote speaker on a mission to help people fall back in love with their work. Martin shares his powerful "Four Not So Surprising Secrets" framework for rebuilding engagement, motivation, and momentum in the workplace.

From the symbolism of the yellow smiley ball to practical strategies for combating the engagement crisis (which is now worse than during the pandemic), this conversation offers a refreshingly human approach to leadership. Martin explains why engagement isn't a soft skill—it's strategic, and why bringing energy back to work starts with purpose, presence, gratitude, and fun.

5:18 - The Yellow Ball Philosophy

8:07 - The Founder Roller Coaster

11:39 - The Engagement Crisis

13:41 - Secret #1: Live Your Why

17:32 - Finding Your Why

22:32 - Secret #2: Be Present

24:00 - The Smartphone Problem

27:17 - Secret #3: Be Grateful

31:17 - Wabi-Sabi: Beauty in Imperfection

36:00 - Secret #4: Have Fun

39:34 - The Seattle Fish Market Example

41:50 - Making Dreams Come True

45:15 - Remote Engagement Challenges

When people stop caring, performance doesn't crash loudly—it quietly leaks out through missed details, slower execution, and "good enough" energy. With engagement at an all-time low (worse than the pandemic), leaders must treat engagement as strategically as they treat revenue metrics.

Your "why" isn't about you—it's about who you serve. When teams realize they're serving others (customers, colleagues, end users), the grind becomes meaningful. Help your team answer: Who do we serve? How do we serve them? What makes us proud?

In a world of Slack threads, Zoom boxes, and endless mental tabs, attention has become one of the rarest leadership skills. Listen to understand, not just to respond. Put down the devices. Be fully there. Someone on your team deserves more of you.

On this episode of SaaS Fuel, host Jeff Mains dives deep with Alex Berkovic, co-founder and CEO of Sphynx, a company modernizing compliance workflows in financial services with AI-powered agents. Alex shares his journey from design engineering at Imperial College and MIT, through founding Adorno AI, to transforming compliance for fintechs, banks, and payments processors with Sphynx.

The conversation explores how AI agents shift compliance teams from manual review to confident decision-making, reducing false positives and enabling scalable, reliable compliance. You’ll hear practical insights on building customer-driven products, adapting for global regulations, scaling teams and culture, and the evolving role of SaaS leadership in the age of AI.

00:00 "AI Transforming Compliance and Branding"

05:53 Manual Compliance Processes in Finance

09:16 AI-Powered Decision Support Systems

11:24 "Ensuring 99% Compliance Confidence"

13:23 "Frictionless AI Integration Process"

19:13 "Chasing PMF Relentlessly"

21:17 Founder-Led Sales Through Conferences

26:08 "Scaring Candidates to Attract Them"

29:08 "Hiring High-Agency Talent Matters"

31:41 "Firing Culture-Fit Employees"

33:30 "Early Startup Hustle Culture"

37:47 "AI Revolution in Compliance"

42:03 "Driving Engagement & Strategy Insights"

AI-Assisted Decision Making in Regulated Industries: "But what they can have is an AI agent, giving them a summary of all the different sources that we orchestrated, the reasoning that we had into making a decision, and them being the final point into making that decision." — Alex Berkovic [00:09:52 → 00:10:08]

AI and Compliance Risks: "In compliance, you can't have 20% where you're, I'm not sure. You can't even have 1% where you're not sure. If you onboard a sanctioned individual into your, your fintech or your bank, regulators are going to come in and hit you with a million-dollar fine." — Alex Berkovic [00:11:43 → 00:11:56]

Frictionless AI Integration: "We don't need an engineering team to integrate our product, right? We don't need you to integrate our API or whatnot. So we'll work on top of existing systems, just like an employee." — Alex Berkovic [00:13:32 → 00:13:42]

The Elusiveness of Product-Market Fit: "I always feel like it's like touching it by the tips of your finger, and then there's more to be done." — Alex Berkovic [00:19:18 → 00:19:23]

The Value of High-Agency Employees: "People that leave and start their own thing is great. It means that you've hired someone that was really good at what they were doing." — Alex Berkovic [00:29:47 → 00:29:51]

Viral Topic - Leadership Burnout: "Most leaders are exhausted from playing the lone hero, and it's killing both your results and your sanity." — Alex Berkovic [00:30:46 → 00:30:52]

Startup Hustle Culture: "I would rather work twice as much rather than hire someone that's gonna not be the right person because we feel we need too much help and we need to deliver." — Alex Berkovic [00:33:37 → 00:33:47]

1. **Build Products Based on Customer Needs, Not Just Passion**

2. **Start with Co-pilot Mode to Build Trust Gradually**

3. **Escalate Uncertain Cases to Humans—Never Compromise on Accuracy**

4. **Onboard with Minimum Friction and Learn Company-Specific Processes**

5. **Hire Slowly, Fire Fast, and Prioritize Culture Over Credentials**

6. **Sustainable Leadership Means High Ownership and Constant Iteration**

Alex Berkovic

alex@sphinxlabs.ai

https://sphinxhq.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandreberkovic/

https://x.com/alexberkovic

The...

In this episode of SaaS Fuel, host Jeff Mains sits down with Marlena Sarunac, co-founder of The Company Advice and marketing strategist for early-stage startups in complex, regulated industries like HealthTech, FinTech, and InsurTech. Marlena shares her "playbook nicely" approach—a proven framework that helps founders avoid reinventing the wheel while building go-to-market foundations that scale.

The conversation explores why letting products "speak for themselves" is a dangerous myth in today's saturated market, how to translate technical complexity into clear messaging that resonates, and why focus beats trying to appeal to everyone. Marlena reveals common messaging traps (including ChatGPT-generated clichés like "turning chaos into clarity"), the critical difference between selling to buyers versus users, and how to navigate pivots without losing credibility.

4:43 - The Playbook Nicely Approach

6:24 - Translating Complexity into Clarity

11:04 - Why "Product Speaks for Itself" is Dangerous

15:34 - Common Messaging Traps

17:42 - Buyers vs. Users

21:05 - Building Trust

22:51 - Navigating Pivots

24:53 - AI and the Human Spark

28:46 - Visual Identity Matters More Than Ever

32:06 - Brand Debt

39:18 - SEO/AIO Strategy

42:36 - Marketing as R&D, Not a Cost Center

Trying to sell to everyone dilutes your message and confuses the market. Get disciplined: focus on 1-3 buyer personas maximum. You can always expand later, but early-stage startups need clarity and traction, not broad appeal that resonates with no one.

Your buyers (decision-makers) and users (end-users) have different needs. Buyers care about business outcomes and ROI; users care about features and usability. Tailor your messaging accordingly: high-level benefits for buyers, detailed use cases and documentation for users.

Don't wait for perfection. Put messaging out there when you're "half comfortable," gather market feedback, and iterate quickly. Use flexible systems (landing pages, modular websites) that allow rapid updates without massive overhauls....