Forget ‘Founder Mode,’ what about Customer Mode?

You might have noticed a lot of the online services and websites you’re using are kind of getting … worse. 

Google search results are cluttered with sponsored links, dating apps have a pay wall, and that article you’re trying to read keeps reloading to deliver unwanted programmatic ads. Author and journalist Cory Doctorow has coined the term “enshittification” to describe the phenomenon. The good news: this means there are different sectors that are ripe for disruption. 

On today’s episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Rebecca Bellan is joined by Ed Zitron — CEO of EZPR, host of the Better Offline podcast, and author of an upcoming book Why Everything Stopped Working — to dig into why this shift is happening and what it means for startups.

Listen to the full episode to hear the pair discuss:

• Why it’s time to ditch ‘founder mode’ for what Ed calls ‘customer mode’ – a more sustainable, customer-first approach that beats the growth-at-all-costs mentality.
• The opportunities Ed sees for startups to disrupt the growth-at-all-costs status quo. 
• The long-term outlook for generative AI companies like OpenAI. (Note: this interview was recorded before the DeepSeek news broke, but don’t worry – Equity will have that update for you later in the week.)

Equity is TechCrunch’s flagship podcast, produced by Theresa Loconsolo, and posts every Wednesday and Friday. 

Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. For the full episode transcript, for those who prefer reading over listening, check out our full archive of episodes here.