The AI Vendor Culling Is Coming - Here's How You Survive It | Russ Fradin, Larridin

In this conversation, host Johannes Deubener sits down with serial founder Russ Fradin, CEO of Larridin (backed by Andreessen Horowitz). He shares what 30 years of building enterprise companies teaches you about AI adoption, vendor survival, and long-term customer relationships.

We cover the real #1 driver of enterprise churn, why 85% of leaders fear falling behind in the next 18 months, what shadow AI really signals about enterprise adoption, and why teams that build with AI dramatically outperform teams that only summarize.

We go deep on what it actually takes to win in the enterprise - not just to get in the door, but to be one of the AI vendors still standing when the inevitable AI vendor consolidation hits.
*Chapters*
*00:41* - Russ Fradin intro
*02:28* - The repeat founder trap
*06:01* - The $5M ARR pivot
*09:25* - 30 years of enterprise lessons: what AI founders need to know right now
*09:30* - The #1 driver of enterprise churn
*13:07* - Radical honesty as your competitive moat
*15:45* - First-time founder playbook
*16:02* - Why free pilots fail - and how to create the right friction from day one
*19:09* - How to close the gap from pilot to production
*22:53* - The 2026 Enterprise AI Report
*26:28* - The coming AI vendor culling
*29:30* - What the AI leaders do differently
*31:54* - Why IT teams get 10x more from AI
*32:11* - The global knowledge workforce retraining experiment
*35:27* - Shadow AI: 45% of AI adoption happens outside procurement
*38:54* - When tool sprawl becomes organizational waste
*41:05* - The power user gap
*44:03* - Why HR needs to own AI enablement - not just IT
*48:10* - What Larridin actually does: measuring AI productivity across the enterprise
*54:27* - "Software eating labor": is AI substituting or augmenting work?
*54:42* - Why AI will create more jobs
*59:06* - Where to find Russ
*59:29* - Outro

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Connect with Johannes: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johannesdeubener/

Follow Russ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rfradin/

Check out Larridin: https://larridin.com/

Read the 2026 Enterprise AI Report: https://larridin.com/state-of-enterprise-ai

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