Speaking
Sharing the ideas that shape how people work and organizations grow.
I speak on leadership, culture, AI, storytelling, and the operating lessons from building companies customers love.
Invite Aaron to speak
Founder · Operator · Builder
Building technology that amplifies human relationships.
I’m Aaron Klein, founder of Contio and creator of Riskalyze (now Nitrogen). I write, speak, and host conversations about leadership, organizational culture, AI, and technology that amplifies professional impact on human relationships.
Founder of ContioCreator and founding CEO of Riskalyze (now Nitrogen)42 consecutive quarters of growth35,000 users in the financial advisor spaceWealth Management CEO of the Year 2023
What I’m building today
Contio turns what gets said into what gets done.
Contio is the Human Workflow Platform, helping professionals take their meeting conversations into agentic workflows, score wins for their clients, and reinvest time back in relationships.
Running as an app on Mac, Windows, iPhone or Android, Contio helps relationship-driven teams prepare, capture the details that matter, and flow those details into the work — with no annoying bots joining calls, and enterprise-grade security.
- Protected from AI Training
- 100% Secure Private Cloud
- SOC 2 Type II Certified
- Zero Recording Architecture
One useful email a month for leaders, builders, and operators.
Start here
Start with these essays.
Writing about leadership, talent, culture, AI, and lessons learned along the way.
AI is in the Apple II Era
AI will make narrow software easier to replace, but it will make products with compounding data, network effects, and proprietary algorithms more valuable.
Your Hiring Process Should Treat Candidates as Innocent Until Convicted of Greatness
A polished candidate can perform for an hour; a rigorous process keeps probing until the performance runs out. Use a scorecard, interview past rehearsed answers, get independent evaluations, and treat references as evidence.
Always Know Your #1
A long list of priorities feels productive while quietly protecting the hardest work from attention. Give every person one visible #1, let it break ties, and watch focus, alignment, and organizational speed improve.
Keeping Only the Best Athletes on Our Team
In a growing company, a historic contributor can become a poor fit for the next role without becoming a worse person. Great leaders tell the truth directly, reward past performance, and help people find a team where they can thrive.
Why Great Boards Make Great Companies
A board should be more than a legal obligation or quarterly slide review. The right directors force a CEO to think, challenge assumptions, bring perspective, open doors, and stay accountable—without running the company.
How AI Leads to the End of Secrets
AI can infer strategy from public breadcrumbs such as hiring, interviews, product signals, and code. Durable advantage now comes from reducing exposure, compartmentalizing sensitive work, and executing fast enough that copycats stay behind.
Do Humans Have a Role in a 150 IQ AI World?
As artificial intelligence makes creation abundant, humans will not win by out-IQing the machines. We will win through taste, strategy, judgment, and the ability to decide what is worth building—and make it meaningful to other people.
Beyond the Meeting
The moments and decisions that make leaders.
Conversations with builders, leaders, and operators about the milestones that have shaped the work they’ve done, and the people they’ve led.
Explore the podcast
Selective advisory
I work with a few founders to help them find their path.
I occasionally work with CEOs and leadership teams on product-market fit, strategy, talent, operating cadence, and Path to Victory clarity.
Explore coachingAbout Aaron
The people and places that make the work matter.
I live in Eagle, Idaho with Cacey and our three kids. We do non-profit work to impact orphans, particularly in Ethiopia. I serve on the board of Mountain States Policy Center. When I’m not with my family or working, I love reading, movies, and biking down the Boise River Greenbelt.
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