Felix Hoffmann has been inside Zalando's pricing engine. Now he's building the tools retail brands need to survive the AI.

We talked about what agentic shopping looks like these days, why European platforms are dangerously slow to react, and why asking "how do I use ChatGPT in my company" is completely the wrong question.

In this episode:

- Why 30–50% of online purchases already start with an AI conversation

- The real reason OpenAI paused agentic shopping (hint: Amazon)

- How product decisions — not just pricing — will be shaped by what AI assistants recommend

- Why Zalando is losing to Amazon

- The offline retail impact nobody's talking about yet

- Why predictive pricing beats LLM-based pricing for explainability and trust

- The chess computer analogy: why specialized AI beats general AI for enterprise use cases

- What a €500M investment commitment would actually look like for a European platform to win

Felix is one of the clearest thinkers on what AI actually changes in commerce versus what's just noise.

Timestamps:

00:00 - The Future of AI in Shopping

03:47 - The Role of Discoverability in Retail

06:47 - Personalization and Production in Fashion

10:58 - The Impact of AI on Consumer Behavior

13:59 - 7Learnings: Optimizing Retail Decisions

16:48 - Consumer Readiness for AI Shopping Assistants

19:35 - The Offline Shopping Experience and AI

22:50 - Luxury Brands and AI Integration

27:43 - The New Gatekeepers of Retail

28:57 - The Competitive Landscape of AI in Shopping

31:02 - Opportunities for Independent Brands

32:14 - Navigating Uncertainty in AI Adoption

36:14 - Strategic AI Investments for Retailers

37:56 - The Risks of Inaction in Retail

40:55 - Pricing Strategies in the Age of AI

46:28 - Trust and Explainability in AI Systems

51:07 - The Future of Decision Automation

Felix - https://www.linkedin.com/in/felix-hoffmann-7learnings

7Learnings - https://7learnings.com/

─── sounds good. — a podcast with Anna Nadeina soundsgoodpod.com

anna@soundsgoodpod.com sounds good. is sponsored by saas.group - serial acquirer of profitable SaaS businesses. If you're thinking about an exit, they're worth a conversation. https://saas.group/

Most AI companies make big claims. Sai built a guarantee into the business model.

Sai Dhanak is the founder of Deduction, an AI tax firm that pairs licensed CPAs with AI agents to deliver tax advice, planning, and filing for US consumers — at a fraction of traditional accountant prices. We talked about what happens when accountability is actually on the line, why services that were "unscalable" are suddenly the hottest pitch in VC rooms, and what the SaaSpocalypse gets completely wrong about junior talent.

In this episode:

- Why "own the customer outcome" might be the only real moat right now

- The CPA shortage nobody's building fast enough for

- AI agents with names and phone numbers (meet Taylor at deduction.com)

- Why predictable workflows scale and litigation doesn't

- The Deduction partner program — a franchise model for the AI era

- Whether Google I/O just quietly ate vibe coding for the masses

- The real reason companies are laying people off (hint: it's not productivity)

- Senior engineers saying they need zero engineers on their team — and whether that ends in burnout

Sai is one of those founders who thinks clearly about messy questions.

Timestamps: 00:00 - Navigating the AI Landscape

11:06 - The Role of Human Touch in AI Services

21:59 - Building Trust in AI-Driven Tax Services

30:28 - The Need for AI Guidance

31:50 - Integrating AI into Daily Life

32:26 - The Reality of AI Implementation

36:24 - Balancing AI and Human Interaction

37:03 - Data Infrastructure Challenges

40:46 - The Cost of Building vs. Buying Software

44:19 - The Future of Vibe Coding

50:29 - Building Trust in AI Solutions

Sai - https://www.linkedin.com/in/saayuj/

Deduction - https://deduction.com/

─── sounds good. — a podcast with Anna Nadeina soundsgoodpod.com

anna@soundsgoodpod.com sounds good. is sponsored by saas.group - serial acquirer of profitable SaaS businesses. If you're thinking about an exit, they're worth a conversation. https://saas.group/

Good content still wins. Finn Thormeier has spent years building LinkedIn presence for B2B executives and he's got a genuinely uncomfortable take on why most of it fails — and it's not the algorithm.

Finn runs Project 33, an executive LinkedIn agency working with B2B founders and C-suite leaders to turn their actual opinions into content that moves pipeline. He's obsessed with the gap between what people think LinkedIn content does and what it actually does.

In this episode:

- Why AI ghostwriting and human ghostwriting have almost identical failure modes

- The real reason LinkedIn reach is dropping (hint: it's supply, not algorithm)

- How to train an AI — or a writer — to not produce slop

- Why Finn stopped using em dashes and what that tells you about the platform right now

- The "VP of Supply Chain" rule: what good engagement actually looks like in B2B

- When LinkedIn posting can't save you (and what product-market fit has to do with it)

- Where Finn would go if LinkedIn disappeared tomorrow: newsletters, in-person, and why

Timestamps:

00:00 - Introduction

03:59 - The Role of AI in Content Creation

07:01 - Human Touch vs. AI in Content Strategy

09:44 - Navigating AI Biases and Content Quality

12:54 - The Importance of Clear Communication in Content

15:53 - The Shift in Audience Perception of AI Content

19:02 - The Impact of Algorithms on LinkedIn Engagement

22:55 - Understanding Content Effectiveness and ROI

25:48 - Balancing Salesy Content with Value-Driven Posts

28:35 - Final Thoughts on Content Creation and Engagement

36:11 - Finding Balance in Content Creation

41:56 - Navigating LinkedIn and Social Media Burnout

48:42 - Debunking Myths About AI and Content Creation

53:58 - The Shift Towards In-Person Networking

56:28 - Inspiration from Real-Life Experiences

If you've ever wondered whether any of this content stuff actually works, this one's worth your time.

Finn Thormeier - https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/

Project 33 - https://www.project33.io/

─── sounds good. — a podcast with Anna Nadeina

soundsgoodpod.com

anna@soundsgoodpod.com

sounds good. is sponsored by saas.group - serial acquirer of profitable SaaS businesses. If you're thinking about an exit, they're worth a conversation. https://saas.group/