START Sherwood Callaway, Founder & CEO, Sazabi “Observability On Autopilot”

START Sherwood Callaway, Founder & CEO, Sazabi “Observability On Autopilot”

Author: Fondo July 28, 2026 Duration: 20:45

AI changed how software gets built.

The tools we use after we ship haven't caught up.

Code is getting cheaper.

Production is getting harder.

That's the gap Sherwood Callaway saw after building with Cursor and Claude Code. AI had transformed how software gets built, but when something broke in production, he was back clicking through observability tools that hadn't kept pace.

Sazabi is built for AI-native engineering teams.

→ Autonomous alerts with root-cause context
→ Conversational debugging instead of endless dashboards
→ AI that learns your codebase, architecture, and past incidents

AI is making it easier than ever to build software.


Sazabi makes it just as easy to understand what's happening in production—helping engineering teams detect issues earlier, identify the root cause faster, and get back to shipping.

Observability is becoming one of the most important layers of the AI software stack.

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🎙️ Sherwood Callaway, Founder & CEO, Sazabi on Fondo START pod

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01:08 — Building AI-native observability for fast-moving engineering teams
01:45 — Why AI made observability a much bigger problem
02:07 — "Code is basically free"
02:36 — Why architecture and product thinking are the new bottlenecks
03:09 — "Measure twice, cut once" — how Sazabi stays focused
03:35 — History major to Dev Bootcamp: turning down investment banking
05:50 — Joining Brex at employee 70 through hypergrowth to $12B
07:10 — Starting Brex's observability team — the seed of Sazabi
07:48 — What observability actually is (it started with 1960s rocket science)
09:45 — "I will leave Brex today" — the Dalton Caldwell moment
12:16 — Building one of the first production AI agents at 11x
13:33 — The Cursor vs. Datadog contrast that sparked Sazabi

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Check out www.sazabi.com


Behind every startup's big idea is the less glamorous, but utterly essential, work of building a real business. The Startup Growth Podcast, from the team at Fondo, digs into that reality. Fondo itself is an all-in-one accounting platform designed for startups, handling everything from closing the books to filing taxes and even helping secure cash back from the IRS. This practical experience informs every conversation. You’ll hear founders and operators talk not just about vision, but about the tangible systems, financial decisions, and marketing pivots that actually fuel growth. Episodes move beyond theory to explore the operational choices that separate promising companies from sustainable ones. It’s a resource for entrepreneurs who understand that strategy is meaningless without execution, and that a healthy bottom line is the truest measure of progress. Tune in for honest discussions that bridge the gap between entrepreneurial ambition and the business fundamentals required to make it last.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 50

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