In this solo “Manny’s Reflections” episode of the Get Paid podcast, host Manny Medina dives into one of the most consequential shifts in the AI market right now: the reversal from tokenmaxxing to rigorous cost optimization. He also spotlights a LinkedIn post from Shriram Sridharan, CTO and Co-Founder of Rox, who shared a framework around measuring Dollars Per Action (DOPA) and demonstrated a 10x reduction in token spend even while scaling usage.

What You’ll Learn:

The great reversal from tokenmaxxing to “what am I actually getting for this AI spend”
Shriram Sridharan's Dollars Per Action framework and why it didn't get the attention it deserved
Why cost per action can be decomposed into two levers
Infrastructure bottlenecks: NVIDIA chip supply constraints, data center permitting backlash across US towns and counties, and the aging power grid
How companies like Coinbase are using smart model routing to manage costs

Manny Medina is the Co-Founder and CEO of Paid, a platform that helps AI agent builders price, monetize, and manage the economics of their agentic products. Before Paid, Manny founded Outreach, the sales engagement platform he scaled from zero to $250M+ in ARR and a $4.4 billion valuation, with 800 employees, before stepping down as CEO.

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Episode Resources:

Manny Medina on LinkedIn
Paid Website
Shriram Sridharan’s Post

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Previous guests include: Dharmesh Shah of HubSpot, Amjad Masad of Replit, Wade Foster of Zapier, Eric Simons of Bolt.new, Nick Mehta of Gainsight, Flo Crivello of Lindy AI, and Karan Parekh of Clay.

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