From First Startup to AI-Powered Scale: Wes Schroll on Building Fetch - Agents of Scale

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Most companies talk about becoming “AI-first.” Very few actually stop the business to make it real. Wes Schroll - Founder & CEO of Fetch - joins Wade to unpack what it actually takes to scale a consumer platform, evolve a decade-old company, and integrate AI without losing focus, culture, or trust. From building his first business at 14 to leading a reward destination that now influences more consumer spend than nearly anyone outside Walmart and Amazon, Wes shares the behind-the-scenes decisions that shaped Fetch’s growth. They dig into Fetch’s business model, how Wes’s perspective on AI shifted from skepticism to urgency, and why leadership had to get hands-on - not delegate AI exploration to a task force. Wes breaks down the decision to shut down the company for a full week so 1,000+ employees could participate in an AI hackathon, the hard lessons learned from early automation missteps, and why simple, readable AI guidelines matter more than fear-based policy.