Burn The Map: Steve Eror — AI Agents, Skydiving, and Why Nap Pods Are Dead
In This Episode:
We sit down with Steve Eror—skydiver, AI troublemaker, and the guy who’ll absolutely call out your nap pod culture for what it is: overhyped and overdue for extinction. Steve walks us through his wild career pivot from Wall Street’s soul-sucking grind (hello, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley) to the frontlines of AI at Signals, where he’s busy helping companies hire “cloud employees” instead of more warm bodies. Along the way, we get the unvarnished truth about what it’s really like to swap financial jargon for code, why automation isn’t your enemy (unless you’re mediocre), and how building a digital army of agents might just be the ticket to working less and living more. Oh, and did I mention he jumps out of planes for fun?
What We Cover:
- The not-so-glamorous story of leaving a “good” job that was anything but good
- How to build and manage AI “cloud employees” that do the grunt work while you focus on… well, anything else
- The myth (and reality) of Jobmageddon: why the robots aren’t coming for your job unless you’re already replaceable
- Why skydiving is the ultimate flow state—and way, way safer than arguing with your compliance department
- Behind the scenes of Chad, the AI bro-sales rep you never wanted (but can’t look away from)
Guest Bio:
Steve Eror is a tech executive and all-around AI troublemaker. He’s got a resume that runs from Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley (where he survived the soul-sucking world of finance) to leadership at InsideSales, Avanti, Zant, and Forethought. These days, he’s helping run the show at Signals, building the AI-powered “cloud employees” that will probably automate the boring parts of your job before you even finish reading this sentence. Steve’s career is a tour through finance, sales, and AI, with a knack for building tools that get actual results—plus, the man jumps out of airplanes for fun (74 times and counting), so you know he’s not just here for the safe bets.
Enjoy!
This episode was brought to you by Wrench.ai
Follow Dan:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danbaird/
X: https://x.com/mrdanbaird
Follow Steve:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevenerorjr/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@getsignals
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/realsteveeror/
Follow the Pod:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@burnthemappodcast
Twitter/X: https://x.com/BurnTheMapPod
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/burnthemappodcast/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@burnthemappodcast
BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/burnthemappodcast.bsky.social
Selected Links From This Episode
- Signals: https://getsignals.ai/
- Wrench.ai: https://wrench.ai/
People and Organizations Mentioned in this Episode
- Steve Eror
- Dan Baird
- Signals
- Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley
- InsideSales, Avanti, Zant, Forethought
- Wrench.ai
Show Notes & Timestamps:
- 00:08 — Why beanbags aren’t just beanbags: Lessons from Lovesac
- 04:15 — Argumentation, decision-making, and why everyone thinks they don’t argue (spoiler: they do)
- 12:24 — Quitting finance, waking up to tech, and learning what an API is (the hard way)
- 18:23 — AI, job-mageddon, and why real talent doesn’t sweat the robots
- 26:04 — Trolling with AI: Building Chad, the world’s worst sales bro
- 29:32 — Skydiving, ADD, and finding zen at 10,000 feet
- 38:21 — Moose encounters, Yellowstone survival, and Darwinism at its finest
- 41:49 — Where to find Steve (and why he’s not hard to track down)