Furkat Kasimov: Don't Copy Success. Learn From Failure Instead. | Ep 1307

In this episode of The Digital Executive Podcast, host Brian Thomas sits down with Furkat Kasimov, London-based entrepreneur, angel investor, and author, to explore what it takes to build and invest wisely in the AI era — before the crowd figures it out. Furkat opens with a origin story that predates the current AI boom by a decade, tracing his first investment to an InsureTech conference where he spotted a deepfake detection company called PinDrop Security and recognized that every dangerous technology creates a market for its antidote. That insight became the founding logic of Applayerai, a venture studio built around predicting what solutions large corporations will need in five to ten years — and building them before those corporations think to ask. He then unpacks the philosophy behind his book Don't Do This, explaining why he focused on cataloguing over 150 business mistakes rather than celebrating success stories: timing and luck can't be replicated, but someone else's mistakes can be avoided. He closes with sharp advice for executives navigating the AI stack: treat foundation models like cloud providers and build for model independence so you can swap them out without rebuilding everything; match model cost to task complexity rather than defaulting to the most powerful option for everything; and always measure the cost of completing a workflow so you can actually optimize it. His parting message cuts through the noise simply — don't lose sight of what makes your business great, treat AI as a utility, and build the knowledge base that lets your agents keep improving over time. If you liked what you heard today, please leave us a review - Apple or Spotify. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices