·S1 E83

Going Beyond Chat with Alex From Arcade | EP83

October 6

49 mins

Episode Description

In this episode of AI Agents, we sit down with Alex Salazar, founder and CEO of Arcade.dev, to talk about building secure, production-ready AI agents that go beyond standard chat functions.

Alex shares his journey from founding authentication company Stormpath to creating Arcade.dev, a platform enabling developers to build AI agents that can take real-world actions across tools like Salesforce, Gmail, GitHub and more—solving critical issues in agentic workflows like authorization, token cost, and consistency.

We explore challenges in AI adoption across industries, why larger enterprises are leading early-stage innovation, and how Arcade.dev is leveraging MCP (Modal Contextual Protocol) to power scalable, safer AI tool integrations.

If you’re interested in the future of agent-based software, developer infrastructure, and practical steps companies can take today to stay ahead in AI, this episode delivers critical insights.

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⏰ TIMESTAMPS:

0:00 - Introducing Alex Salazar and Arcade.dev

1:32 - How Arcade.dev Solves Agent Authorization

3:33 - Transitioning From VC to AI Startup

6:00 - Challenges Building Production-Grade Agents

9:05 - Pivot to Tool Layer Innovation

13:50 - Rapid Enterprise and Startup Adoption

17:10 - Why Agent Projects Usually Fail

20:20 - Importance of Venture Capital for AI Startups

24:22 - Dominating a Winner-Take-All Market

28:05 - Choosing the Right Customers and Use Cases