[00:00:45] Mehmet Gonullu:
Hello and welcome back to another episode of The CTO Show with Mehmet. Today I’m very pleased to be joined by Ghazenfer Mansoor from Washington, DC. He is the founder and CEO of Technology Rivers.

I’m very pleased to have you here today, Ghazenfer. We’re going to talk about technology, how it affects businesses, and of course the latest trends. But before we dive in—as I do with all my guests—I keep the intro for them.

So tell us a little bit about your background, your journey, and why you started the company.

[00:01:27] Ghazenfer Mansoor:
Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for having me, Mehmet. My name is Ghazenfer Mansoor. I’m based in Virginia, just outside DC. I’m originally from Pakistan. I got my computer science degree there, and I moved to the United States in 1999.

I worked with two startups as an early engineer. I got into mobile very early—around 2000—when I built wireless communities for a European company. I also created a home controller through a Palm device that could control home appliances. That’s how I got into mobile, and it opened up more opportunities down the road.

That experience helped me build the foundation for writing a book that’s coming out in the next couple of weeks. It’s called Beyond the Download: How to Build Mobile Apps That People Love, Use, and Share Every Day.

After working at a few companies, I started consulting. Then I started a recruitment software startup called HireWorks—a SaaS product targeted toward recruiters.

In 2015, I started Technology Rivers, a custom software development company. We started as a mobile app development company, based on my expertise—with one focus: building software the right way the first time. Because we’ve seen that in the tech space, it’s very common for people to build products that never end.

That’s one of the common challenges, and startups don’t have a lot of money to experiment. So we built our process around delivering quickly—with the goal of launching businesses.

As we grew, we shifted our focus more toward healthcare software development. We started working with health tech customers, then with startups from the Johns Hopkins Innovation Center. That’s where we learned HIPAA, and we moved deeper into healthcare.

Now we’ve built over 50 healthcare applications—about half of them HIPAA-compliant.

And even within healthcare, we focus on two areas:

1. building healthcare products for health tech companies, and

2. helping service businesses improve their operations through AI and technology.

That includes home care, assisted living, autism care—companies in regulated environments dealing with Medicaid and other constraints. Out-of-the-box tools usually aren’t great. So we build internal tools and workflows to improve operations, scale faster, increase efficiency, and boost profitability.

So our focus is more on systems-powered growth rather than people-powered growth.

[00:04:44] Mehmet Gonullu:
Great, and thank you again for being here with me today.

Your introduction sparked a few questions. You’ve seen a lot of big ideas turn into production-grade software—and also the unlucky ones. In your opinion, what makes great ideas ship and scale versus the ones that quietly die?

[00:05:27] Ghazenfer Mansoor:
In my experience, the biggest thing is solving a real problem. Many times, we start building products just because we love building, or we feel like the problem exists—and assume people will come once it’s built.

But no matter how good the product is, if customers aren’t using it, it’s of no use.

I learned this the hard way. In my first startup, I built the backend, the engine—everything. I knew the space. I had done staffing. I saw the gap.

But once we built it, we realized we weren’t able to get customers. We went back to the whiteboard, talked to customers, and started delivering one feature at a time.

So it’s about what you build and how you build it. If I were doing it again, I’d find the customer first before building.

[00:06:44] Mehmet Gonullu:
Now, I saw you also talk a lot about why software projects fail. Beyond the need—what about vision, execution, leadership alignment? Where do you usually have to intervene to align everyone?

[00:07:28] Ghazenfer Mansoor:
It doesn’t matter whether it’s mobile or SaaS—those are just interfaces.

One of the main challenges we see is the feature race—trying to build everything with the belief that if you don’t have those features, you won’t succeed.

And cheaper is not always great.

You need a clear understanding of what you’re building and why. For example, if you build “another CRM” and try to sell it as a CRM, Salesforce and others dominate. It’s hard.

Instead, pick one feature they don’t have—solve that problem. Don’t even position it as a CRM. Bring customers in through the one thing you do better. Start by integrating with existing tools, and gradually expand.

That’s how many products evolve. Positioning and marketing matter as much as product.

[00:10:19] Ghazenfer Mansoor:
On technical debt—when you keep adding features, technical debt increases. If you delay cleanup for six months, it becomes a mess.

The best approach is to clean as you go. If a new feature requires changes, add time to refactor while you’re already touching that part of the code.

Otherwise you’re waiting for a disaster. You need prioritization between feature work and technical debt—often driven by product management and technical leadership (CTO/VP Engineering).

[00:13:09] Mehmet Gonullu:
AI is top of mind for every business owner. But businesses struggle to turn AI into ROI. When does AI actually transform operations versus just sounding impressive in pitch decks?

[00:13:55] Ghazenfer Mansoor:
AI is already making a difference everywhere—it depends on how you leverage it.

Even at the basic level, some people treat it like search. Others go deeper—prompting, workflows, and using it efficiently.

In our world, we use AI across development: tools like Cursor, code coverage, documentation, and more.

But for businesses, I’d say focus on the workflow, not the tool. The goal isn’t “using AI.” The goal is outcomes: better code, better process, faster execution.

So in any industry—healthcare or otherwise—identify workflows that should be automated. That’s where AI delivers real value.

We use ChatGPT heavily, and Claude as well. These tools make a difference—but many people still struggle with how to use AI well because it’s changing fast and people feel overwhelmed.

[00:16:04] Mehmet Gonullu:
What best practices do you recommend before implementing AI? A lot of people try tech before auditing processes.

[00:17:00] Ghazenfer Mansoor:
Exactly. People pick tools first—and there are many. Tools will keep changing.

But you have to look at your processes. AI will optimize whatever you feed it. If your processes aren’t right, AI won’t magically fix them.

Your data needs to be clean. You need to map workflows and define processes. Then AI can automate them.

[00:18:32] Mehmet Gonullu:
Let’s talk healthcare and regulation. Does regulation block innovation? How do teams innovate without breaking rules?

[00:19:25] Ghazenfer Mansoor:
We often mix up compliance with innovation. If you separate them, you can still innovate—you just keep compliance in mind from day one.

HIPAA and GDPR are rules—like PCI in finance. That didn’t stop innovation.

Compliance can be added later, but it’s harder. Better to design for it from day one: encryption at rest and in transit, audit logs, tracking who did what at the database and application levels.

With AI, a common misconception is that PHI data will automatically train models. But there are protections.

In the US, you need a BAA—Business Associate Agreement—which defines how data is handled. Many of our customers work with OpenAI or Google, and they sign BAAs where there is no data used for training and often zero retention policies.

Data anonymization also plays a role.

[00:22:39] Ghazenfer Mansoor:
There’s also RAG—retrieval augmented generation.

If you have sensitive internal data you don’t want the model training on, you keep it in a RAG system (often a vector database). You retrieve relevant chunks, filter them, and then the model answers based on that limited context.

This also reduces hallucinations. AI will answer even if it doesn’t know—it will guess. People don’t realize they may be getting wrong information.

So architecture matters—especially for healthcare, legal, financial, or any sensitive data.

[00:25:48] Mehmet Gonullu:
Let’s go back to the book. What was the motive behind writing it?

[00:26:17] Ghazenfer Mansoor:
The title is Beyond the Download: How to Build Mobile Apps That People Love, Use, and Share Every Day.

It’s based on experience. We built close to 60 mobile apps in the last 11 years, plus my early work in mobile since 2000.

The book shares 30+ strategies focused on retention. Getting a download is the first step—but the real goal is daily usage.

It was also on my bucket list. It took me three years to write. We started with a small ebook, wrote blogs, and eventually expanded it into a full book.

[00:28:58] Ghazenfer Mansoor:
Retention is related to solving a problem—but also to value and habit.

TikTok solved “entertainment,” and people got addicted. Sometimes it’s not a classic “pain” problem—it’s something that brings people back.

I also love Steve Jobs’ quote: customers don’t know what they want—you have to show them.

Sometimes the core problem is indirect. What you build may not be the “main” problem customers think they have—but it keeps you top of mind.

[00:32:04] Ghazenfer Mansoor:
Example: a greeting card app. People only need it occasionally—birthdays, events.

But what if you reposition it as helping people become better humans—making it easier to appreciate others daily? Now it’s not “cards”—it’s relationships and connection.

Not every app needs daily usage, but the goal is to bring people back more frequently based on the product’s nature.

[00:35:27] Mehmet Gonullu:
You talk about moving from 1× to 10× and prepping service businesses for a profitable exit. When should founders start thinking like acquirers?

[00:35:49] Ghazenfer Mansoor:
From day one. Strategy is key.

When we say 1× to 10×, it’s about automating processes. That doesn’t mean building full custom software on day one.

If you use software your competitors use, there’s no advantage. You want something unique to your business—your internal value proposition.

Start with common tools, then identify bottlenecks: manual processes, pain points, things taking time.

Then build small: maybe integrations, maybe a lightweight agent that simplifies one workflow. Start with one thing, build momentum, shift the mindset.

You’re not trying to become a tech company immediately. But after a while, founders often realize the value and want to build more.

Eventually, your internal systems become assets. Competitors can buy the same tools—but they can’t copy your workflows.

That increases efficiency, profitability, and valuation. A service business might trade at 3–4× EBITDA, but with tech-enabled differentiation it can reach 15–20×.

Systems-powered growth is better than people-powered growth.

[00:41:30] Mehmet Gonullu:
How do founders maintain culture—transparent communication and ownership—as they grow?

[00:42:01] Ghazenfer Mansoor:
Transparency builds trust.

Ownership is key to quality. We struggled with this too. You want people to move from reactive to proactive—looking ahead, identifying risks, doing the extra 10% that prevents future pain.

Example: developers refactoring while building features. Or building implicit needs like analytics even if not explicitly requested—because you know it will matter later.

Ownership raises quality automatically.

[00:44:49] Mehmet Gonullu:
Final words—where can people find you?

[00:45:01] Ghazenfer Mansoor:
Thanks for having me.

People can reach me at ghazenfer.com and technologyrivers.com. Both have links to my book and my podcast, Lessons From the Leap, where I talk with entrepreneurial leaders about the leaps they’ve taken.

Final thought: AI is moving fast. It’s exciting and scary.

You have a choice: be the next Blockbuster, or adapt like Netflix/Amazon. We decided to compete—lean into AI, innovate, and stay ahead.

AI isn’t a replacement—it’s empowerment. If you used to get 3–4 things done in a day, now you can get 10 done. Why not be more productive?

[00:48:13] Mehmet Gonullu:
Thank you, Ghazenfer. Very informative.

All the links will be in the show notes. If you discovered this podcast by luck, please subscribe and share. If you’re a loyal listener, thank you for your support.

We’re entering our fourth year now. 2025 was amazing—we were trending in the top 200 Apple Podcast charts across multiple countries. Hopefully we’ll continue in 2026.

Thank you, and stay tuned for a new episode soon. Bye-bye.