Ep 37 - Alexandra Butmalai - Co-founder & CEO of amazive

In this episode of the Founders & Funding Podcast, Philip speaks with Alexandra Butmalai, Co-founder and CEO of amazive. Amazive is an AI software for engineer-to-order manufacturers, currently focused on windows and doors, extracting specifications from architectural plans, sketches, and tender documents and turning them into structured, editable data that feeds straight into production planning. Alexandra explains how a process that can take up to two weeks by hand is cut down to minutes.

She shares why she deliberately bootstrapped amazive after previous companies that raised significant capital, why taking investor money to learn rather than to accelerate leads to poor decisions, and how growing up around her parents' construction and furniture businesses eventually led her back to the industry.

They also discuss choosing complementary skills and shared values in a founding team, why low ego matters more than founders think, and how to put yourself in an investor's shoes before you ever pitch.