034 - Scaling AI with Less Hardware: Pivoting to Infrastructure Efficiency with Todd Smith, CEO, TAHO

Episode notes

What happens when your AI product isn't the real product? Todd Smith, CEO of TAHO (Formerly Opnbook), shares how a year into building a business intelligence tool for AI usage tracking, his team stumbled into something bigger - a game-changing infrastructure optimization layer that boosts high-performance computing across AI, gaming, crypto, and more. In this episode, Todd walks us through: - The original idea behind Opnbook and why they shelved it - How pivoting to their infrastructure layer (TAHO) opened a massive market opportunity - Why AI-era startups can run leaner, faster, and cheaper than ever before - What most VCs get wrong about true innovation - Why the next generation of enterprise wins will be powered by software efficiency From pre-IPO tours at Facebook, Snapchat, and Docker to rolling the dice on his own venture, Todd brings decades of hard-earned infrastructure insight and startup humility to the table. If you’re building in AI, high-performance compute, or B2B SaaS — this one’s essential listening.