124 —AI for the $30M: No Hype, Just ROIÂ
This week, Sean speaks with Dawid Naude, Founder of Pathfinder.ai, who shares how service business Founders can move beyond the AI buzz and start leveraging real-world tools and strategies to scale faster, reduce costs, and create new revenue streams.
Â
Â
Â
In this ScaleHQ Podcast episode, Sean sits down with Dawid Naude, Founder of Pathfinder.ai, one of Australia's fastest-growing AI service providers. David grew his business from 2 to 20 staff in just 16 months, not by building complex tech, but by getting practical with tools like ChatGPT to boost productivity and unlock new revenue opportunities dramatically.
If you're a service business Founder wrestling with how to use AI in a meaningful way, this episode is for you.
Sean and Dawid discussed:
- The AI adoption journey every Founder goes through: How Founders move from skeptical dabbling to full-scale AI integration across their business, and why most get stuck in the “tinkering” phase.
- Why most “AI experts” are only using 5% of the tools: The critical difference between casual prompting and true ChatGPT proficiency and why features like Custom Instructions, GPT creation, and multi-model use are the real unlocks.
- The low-hanging fruit for AI wins in services businesses: How service businesses can save hours (or days) by automating proposal writing, competitor research, and sales briefing packs, plus how to train AI to make go/no-go decisions on tenders.
- Creating scalable revenue with AI-powered agents: Why AI allows you to productise your deep domain knowledge into custom bots, SaaS-like tools, or subscription services without needing to code, hire developers, or raise capital.
- The 3 AI personas every business should be using now: Dawid’s proven framework for using AI as a smart grad (Assistant), a strategic thinker (Advisor), and a scalable creator of content, tools, and customer experiences.
- The mindset shift Founders must make to unlock real ROI from AI: Why trying to make AI do what you already do faster is a mistake, and how rethinking delivery, pricing models, and client interaction will create a true competitive advantage.
If you're still wondering where to start with AI or how to turn it into real profit instead of just another tech fad, this episode will give you the roadmap, the mindset shift, and the practical tools to get moving fast.
ABOUTÂ OURÂ GUEST:
Dawid Naude is a trailblazer in business, disruption, and innovation, shaping the future by translating AI’s potential into real world impact. Committed to making AI exciting, accessible, and impossible to ignore, he helps organisations to make every employee more productive, reimagine what’s possible, and achieve breakthrough innovation.Â
As the CEO and Founder of Pathfindr, Australia’s leading, AFR award-winning AI accelerator, Dawid is one of the country’s foremost AI innovators, educators, and implementers. A prominent AI speaker, Dawid’s keynotes have built a reputation for exciting audiences into action. With an infectious energy and a gift for making the complex feel simple, he is renowned for converting cautious AI onlookers into confident champions.
Through Pathfindr, Dawid now thrives on helping bold leaders to unlock AI’s full potential today—not in some distant future. Named one of AFR BOSS’ Most Innovative Companies in its founding year (2024), Pathfindr’s clients include Woolworths Group, Victoria Government, Honey Insurance, Standards Australia, Engie, Engineers Australia, Australia Post, Pemba Capital Group and Hunter Water. Â
About Sean Steele
Sean has led several education businesses through various growth stages including 0-3m, 1-6m, 3-50m and 80m-120m. He's evaluated over 200 M&A deals and integrated or started 7 brands within larger structures since 2012. Sean's experience in building the foundations of organisations to enable scale uniquely positions him to host the ScaleUps podcast.
