AI Startup CEO Reveals What Really Kills AI Projects
Beyond Coding1 Loka 2025

AI Startup CEO Reveals What Really Kills AI Projects

What if the biggest obstacles to AI innovation aren't what you think? Deeploy CEO Maarten Stolk shares his controversial but effective strategies for building successful AI products and ecosystems, challenging the common wisdom around bottom-up initiatives and regulation.


In this episode, we cover:


Why bottom-up initiatives fail without strong top-down vision.

The surprising benefits of the EU's AI Act for innovation.

How to build a thriving AI ecosystem from the ground up.

The single most important metric for AI observability.

This conversation is for tech leaders, founders, and engineers who want to move beyond AI experiments and build real-world, production-ready systems.


Timestamps:

00:00:00 - Intro

00:00:45 - Why Maarten Started a Dutch AI Hub

00:02:15 - The "Flywheel" Effect Crucial for AI Success

00:04:42 - The Hard Truth: Why the Netherlands is Lagging in AI

00:07:52 - A Controversial Take: The EU AI Act is Actually Good for Everyone

00:11:26 - The Real Bottleneck to Innovation Isn't Regulation

00:14:25 - From POC to Production: Why Top-Down Vision is Non-Negotiable

00:17:13 - A Wake-Up Call for Inexperienced Leadership Teams

00:20:30 - How Winning Companies Use AI to Dominate Their Market

00:23:44 - The Right Way to Learn From Your Competitors

00:27:30 - Maarten Outsourced Core Development to an AI Company

00:31:59 - The #1 Metric You Must Track for AI Observability

00:36:03 - Open-Source vs. Closed-Source: Which AI Model Will Win?

00:40:23 - The Inevitable Crisis That Will Force Innovation

00:42:19 - The Power of Having a Long-Term Personal Vision


#AIStrategy #TechLeadership #Innovation


Jaksot(239)

Changing Careers, Listening and Podcasting with Bart Farrell

Changing Careers, Listening and Podcasting with Bart Farrell

Probably the most fun conversation I’ve had while having the most connectivity issues 😂 Hopefully nothing noticeable :) Bart Farrell comes on and shares his non-linear journey to the tech industry. I...

8 Maalis 202358min

Platform Engineering & Platform as a Product with Luca Galante

Platform Engineering & Platform as a Product with Luca Galante

What is Platform Engineering, why does it exist and why should you care? Those are the main questions we discuss in this episode and who better to do that with than Luca Galante 🙌 He shares his jour...

1 Maalis 202356min

Knowledge Sharing through Writing with Luca Rossi

Knowledge Sharing through Writing with Luca Rossi

I know many developers that blog, or have ever thought of blogging. I’m in that group as well. But the people I know that have turned writing into their full-time gig is a lot smaller. Luca Rossi belo...

22 Helmi 202348min

Ethics, Values, and Layoffs in Big Tech with Dorothea Baur

Ethics, Values, and Layoffs in Big Tech with Dorothea Baur

Can companies afford ethics in bad times? Looking at the recent mass layoffs in big tech, it looks like they couldn't. Dorothea Baur shares how she combines ethics and strategy to bring value to organ...

15 Helmi 202349min

Kubernetes, DevOps and SRE the right way with Nana Janashia

Kubernetes, DevOps and SRE the right way with Nana Janashia

What stuck with me from this chat with Nana is that curiosity and hunger for learning & sharing will bring you further than anything else. In her case, learning Kubernetes and AWS and sharing that kno...

8 Helmi 202352min

Q&A #2: First Job Advice & Tips and Skills vs. Degree & More with Patrick Akil

Q&A #2: First Job Advice & Tips and Skills vs. Degree & More with Patrick Akil

We're back with another Q&A episode! 🙌 Had a blast answering your questions 😁 Let me know if I should do more of these 💬 Xebia Essentials: Resource about Software Development Done Right (not for s...

1 Helmi 202338min

A Career as Manager with Wim den Besten

A Career as Manager with Wim den Besten

“If people see you as a leader in a good way, then you’re doing a good job as a manager” Having been a manager at Oracle for 20+ years, Wim shares his unique experience on leadership, how to inspire a...

25 Tammi 202345min

Rememberable Presentations and Personal Branding with Sabine Wojcieszak

Rememberable Presentations and Personal Branding with Sabine Wojcieszak

Sabine shares how to give presentations people will remember. How to leverage storytelling, stay authentic and create your content in a goal-oriented way. On top of that we discuss the importance of p...

18 Tammi 202342min