Jeremy Funk — The New Rules of Growth in the AI Era | Future Ventures Podcast Ep. 44

Send us Fan Mail Jeremy Funk has spent more than two decades doing the one thing most people in tech were told to stop prioritizing: building real relationships. As founder and CEO of Funk Futures — a fractional sales, recruiting, and marketing firm rooted in the energy sector — he's earned a reputation as one of the industry's premier "super connectors." His value, as he puts it plainly, is the people in his phone who actually pick up when he calls. Based in Boulder County, Colorado, and a veteran of 85 cold calls a day early in his career, Jeremy built his business on a single non-negotiable pillar: authenticity.  This conversation is important because Jeremy is using an innovative approach. As AI handles more outreach, skills like listening, curiosity, and real connection become the most valuable. For entrepreneurs trying to get big clients, build a sales process, or stand out in a world full of chatbots, Jeremy gives honest, simple advice on doing business the human way. It's part sales tips, part life lesson on building careers and raising kids in a tech-driven world.  **Key Topics Covered**  1. **The relationship-first career** — Why Jeremy bet on connection over coding, and how 85 cold calls a day became the foundation for everything that followed. 2. **Authenticity as a sales strategy** — How telling clients the truth instead of what they want to hear became Funk Futures' number-one differentiator. 3. **Winning enterprise rapport** — Doing the research, meeting buyers where they are, and turning transactional conversations into personal ones. 4. **AI as an opening, not a threat** — Why mass automation has made cold calling and authentic outreach more valuable, not less. 5. **Raising connectors in a screen-first world** — Phone-free summer camps, no-phone dinners, and a daughter's lawn-mowing hustle as a real lesson in selling. **Key Insights**  - The best salespeople run on a "two big ears, one small mouth" rule — they ask and listen far more than they pitch, because understanding *why* someone would buy matters more than describing what you're selling. - AI removes friction and saves time, so buyers will increasingly expect it — but that same automation creates an opening, because the more robotic everything feels, the more people crave doing business with an actual human. - You're always investing in people, not products or technology; resilience forged through real adversity — getting fired, losing deals, persevering anyway — is the trait that most reliably separates great founders from the rest. **Links**  - Funk Futures: https://www.funkfutures.com/ - Jeremy Funk on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremyfunk - Future Ventures Corp: https://www.linkedin.com/company/future-ventures-corp/   **About the Guest**  Jeremy Funk is the founder and CEO of Funk Futures, a fractional sales, recruiting, and marketing firm that helps innovative companies — particularly in energy — accelerate sales, recruit top talent, and expand their market presence. A Brandeis University graduate with more than 20 years in technology and energy sales, he's recognized as one of the industry's premier connectors and a trusted advisor to founders and executives. He lives in Boulder County, Colorado, with his wife and three kids, where he's a die-hard Boston sports fan and host of multiple podcasts.