The Way of Product with Caden Damiano · 2026-06-23 · 43 min
John Long is the CEO and Co-Founder of Thynk AI , a Utah-based company building AI communication agents that handle the full pre-sales motion - cold outreach, lead qualification, scheduling, and beyond - without a human ever touching the conversation. Rising to prominence in enterprise technology sales over a 15-year career, Long built his reputation not as a manager of sales teams but as the kind of operator who embeds so deeply with product that the line between salesperson and builder disappears entirely. He was once the lone sales representative tasked with opening a brand-new market segment, and over the course of more than 100 trips with his product team, he helped construct what became a multimillion-dollar recurring revenue line from scratch. The product partner he worked alongside on that run is now his co-founder at Thynk AI. Founded in mid-2024, Thynk AI entered the market with a thesis that most AI SDR tools are window dressing - capable of sending a templated email but unable to hold a real conversation, respond to replies, or carry a prospect from cold contact through to a qualified meeting without human intervention.
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