The Modulate Playbook: How Two MIT Technologists Learned to Stop Explaining and Start Selling

Technical brilliance doesn’t guarantee business success. In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Modulate CEO Mike Pappas revealed the unconventional path he and his co-founder took from MIT physics to building a category-defining company in voice technology.

The Deliberate Preparation

Unlike many technical founders who rush to market, Mike and his co-founder Carter took a calculated approach. “We were absolutely those kids in school that were already brainstorming about that startup we were going to build one day,” Mike recalls. But instead of launching immediately after graduation, they made a strategic decision to gain complementary experiences.

“I mostly went into software companies that had distinctive cultures to learn more about building an effective organization. Carter went into NASA’s jet propulsion lab to go really deep into the machine learning, science side of things,” Mike explains. This deliberate split allowed them to develop both the technical and business acumen they’d need.

Learning the Hard Way

Even with this preparation, the transition from technologist to business leader wasn’t smooth. Early sales meetings revealed a crucial gap in their approach. When gaming studios expressed interest in voice moderation rather than their voice-changing technology, Mike’s response was purely technical: “I, being a technologist, would say, ‘hey, that’s a totally different product. You’ve clearly misunderstood what I’m presenting.'”

This moment exemplifies a common pattern among technical founders: treating customer conversations as technical discussions rather than business opportunities. The breakthrough came when they finally recognized that “our first customers found us and banged down the door and made us understand that this was a thing that they deeply needed.”

Building a Partner-First Culture

The transition from technical to business leadership required a fundamental shift in mindset. “First and foremost, we want to tell the truth,” Mike emphasizes. “We see ourselves not just as a vendor to a platform. We really want to be a partner.” This partner-first approach has become central to Modulate’s culture and growth strategy.

This mindset shift extended to how they approach market opportunities. Rather than leading with technology, they focus on understanding customer challenges. For example, they recognized that while giants like “Facebook or Roblox have the resources to read thousands and thousands of pages of regulations,” most gaming companies struggle with regulatory compliance. This insight shaped their go-to-market strategy.

Lessons from Bridgewater

Mike’s experience at Bridgewater Associates provided crucial lessons in building organizational culture. “Ray and Bridgewater are very emphatic believers in concepts of radical transparency, continuous feedback, really pushing people as much as you can in a caring way,” he shares. While not all aspects of Bridgewater’s culture translated directly to Modulate, the experience shaped their approach to feedback and growth.

The Co-Founder Dynamic

One of the most crucial decisions was choosing the right co-founder. “I sure as heck picked the right co-founder,” Mike reflects. “Make sure that you really do understand how to navigate disagreement, because there will be disagreement, there will always be different perspectives.”

This foundation has proved essential as Modulate has scaled, with Mike noting that “it’s a lesson that I’m happy to say I think we’ve continued to get right in terms of building out our broader leadership team as the company has continued to grow.”

From Technical to Strategic Leadership

The transformation from technical founder to business leader required learning to see beyond the technology. When gaming studios kept asking about voice moderation, the key wasn’t to better explain their technology – it was to understand the market need they were expressing.

This shift in perspective has driven Modulate’s success, leading to major partnerships and significant revenue growth. “Over last year, we more than forexed in our annual recurring revenue,” Mike shares, validating their evolution from technical experts to business leaders.

For technical founders making this transition, Modulate’s journey offers a clear lesson: success often comes not from explaining your technology better, but from learning to listen to what the market is trying to tell you. The key is being willing to evolve beyond your technical roots while leveraging that expertise to build something truly valuable for customers.