Evolved Radio – Details, episodes & analysis

Ashley Cooper on Lovable, Local-First AI Apps, and Safe Agent Workflows for MSPs

The host interviews Ashley Cooper (COO at Cyber Drain, VP of Community at Rewst) about her use of Lovable and other AI coding tools to build small, local-first, deterministic apps and learn through prompting. Ashley describes receiving a Lovable contributor gift after ranking in the top 0.01% of users, her early failed attempt to rebuild community software, and her shift to rapid, browser-based prototypes like JSON-to-CSV converters, receipt/expense and food trackers, and a webhook-driven PSA time-entry timer. She explains her workflow moving from Lovable scaffolding to GitHub/VS Code with Copilot, plus experimenting with Bolt and tools like OpenClaw, emphasizing trust boundaries, least privilege, and treating agents like employees. They discuss prompt engineering using philosophical mental models, risks of unvetted "vibe-coded" SaaS, and advising MSPs to start with data readiness and education before deploying AI for clients.

This episode is brought to you by Opsleader Pro. A place for MSP owners and managers to get the systems and tools they need to build a stable and growing MSP. Part group coaching, part peer group, everything you need to run a successful MSP.

00:00 Meet Ashley Cooper

01:17 Lovable Gift Surprise

03:01 Early Builds and Lessons

05:25 Hackathon One Shot Apps

09:34 Finding Ideas to Build

11:00 Viral AI Side Projects

14:09 Keeping or Killing Projects

18:22 Local First Automation Wins

19:51 Beyond Lovable Toolchain

24:03 OpenClaw Risks and Power

30:49 AI As Employee

31:18 Stress And Bias

32:02 Context Anxiety

34:52 Prompt Writing Workflow

37:23 Mental Model Prompts

41:44 Deep Instruction Sources

47:20 SaaS Apocalypse Debate

49:53 MSP AI Readiness

53:47 Education And Governance

56:30 Closing Thoughts

Ever wonder what really happens behind the scenes when a rocket-ship MSP vendor goes from scrappy startup to multi-billion dollar public company? Today, I'm talking with Michael Fass, former Datto general counsel and now CEO at Slide. Michael's seen the vendor/MSP relationship from every angle—legal, operational, and now as a co-founder, building Slide for the MSP channel.

If you want a brutally honest look at what hypergrowth actually looks like from the inside, why most MSPs never get past "just technical," and how to avoid being the cobbler with ragged shoes, this episode is for you.

You'll walk away knowing how to spot your "butter zone" in leadership, and a new way to think about partnering with the tech vendors in your stack.

This episode is brought to you by Opsleader Pro. A place for MSP owners and managers to get the systems and tools they need to build a stable and growing MSP. Part group coaching, part peer group, everything you need to run a successful MSP.

Today I'm excited to bring you a really insightful conversation with Brian Largent. Brian brings nearly two decades of experience running an MSP that specializes in co-managed IT services, particularly in complex and regulated industries like healthcare and manufacturing.

In this episode, Brian and I get into the nitty-gritty of co-managed IT. What it means, why it's not just for large enterprises, and how his team lives and breathes this model for clients, unexpectedly in rural markets. 

We dive into the real challenges and opportunities of working alongside internal IT teams, what makes for a successful partnership, and some lessons learned from both our journeys in the MSP space.

Whether you're an MSP looking to branch into co-managed services or looking to improve your co-managed offering, you'll get a ton of actionable insights from this conversation.

This episode is brought to you by Opsleader Pro. A place for MSP owners and managers to get the systems and tools they need to build a stable and growing MSP. Part group coaching, part peer group, everything you need to run a successful MSP.

On the podcast today I'm speaking with Canon Bryan, CFO with Terrestrial Energy. Terrestrial Energy is an industry leader in next-generation nuclear energy. Nuclear is a fantastically efficient and clean source of energy, but over the years it's earned a bit of negative reputation. As Canon and I discuss this reputation is really unfair when you examine the facts. Terrestrial Energy is building the next generation of nuclear power. It's much more compact, it's dramatically safer, and could be the key to our energy future.

Resources mentioned

4th Generation Energy Blog

Terrestrial Energy on Twitter & Facebook

Taylor Wilson - MSR Ted Talk - This is the TED Talk that got me excited about the MSR technology

Turning CO2 into gasoline

Nuclear facilities have killed far fewer people than you may think.

Today on the podcast, my guest is Nigel Moore, Founder of The Tech Tribe.

Nigel built and sold a successful MSP in Sydney. He now is leading a tribe of MSP owners looking to grow their MSP practice.

Nigel and I talk about the evolution of the IT service company to an MSP.

The mistakes people make and what makes it difficult. We also explore the idea of if you should do TnM & MSP or just go pure MSP.

Nigel is a fantastic guy and is truly passionate about the industry.

Managed Services in a Month - by Karl Palachuk

The Tech Tribe discount link here. Use this link and get 40% off your first month and the tech tribe will donate mosquito nets to communities in Africa!

Today's podcast is brought to you by Simplesat. Your tool for stupidly simple satisfaction surveys. I'm joined by Derek and Cory Brown, the father-son team behind Pronto Marketing and Simplesat.

If you're in a service-based industry it's important to know how your customers feel about your service. Traditional satisfaction surveys are terrible and the response rate shows that's the case. Simplesat can increase your client feedback 10 fold. Simplesat also makes the data more actionable. Jump over to simplesat.io for a free 30-day trial and try it out yourself.

Today on Evolved Radio we're talking everyone's favorite IT topic lately. Security!

I'm joined by Ian Paterson CEO of Plurilock. His company has a really innovative approach to security. It's an advanced form of user identification that can tell who you are by how you type and move the mouse.

We talk about why users hate passwords, security requirements for regulated industries, and much more.

Richard Tubb is one of the best-known experts in the global IT Managed Service Provider (MSP) community. His track record speaks for itself, as he launched and sold his own MSP business before creating a leading MSP media and consultancy practice. Richard is also the author of the IT Business Owner's Survival Guide and the author of the Tubblog.

We discuss why you may need a business coach, what business owners tend to struggle with most, and how technology is evolving MSP businesses as well as their client's businesses.

Several books are mentioned in the podcast in addition to Richard's book.

The E-Myth revisited

Getting Things Done

On the podcast today, I'm chatting with Alex Markov, President of Red Key Solutions and CEO of Strategy Overview.

Red Key is a mature and successful MSP in the New York area. Alex and his team work hard to deliver business value to their clients. One of the best way for MSPs to do that is implementing a QBR/TBR. Alex recognized the value in the system they had built and has created a SaaS product called Strategy Overview to help others deliver effective technology planning to their clients.

Dan Sutton is vocal leader in the BC cannabis industry. Dan started Tantalus Labs, a cannabis production company in 2012. Dan has been a strong supporter of greenhouse based production of cannabis. We talk about the social and financial impact of that approach. We also discuss the fast dissolving social and professional stigmas associated with cannabis. Canada is expected to federally legalize cannabis in 2018. The Canadian market alone is expected to be worth about seven Billion. Dan and his team hope to position sungrown BC bud as a market leader in the industry.