Inside Cornerstone X: How this 'She-E-O' Built the $30M AI Revolution | Chantal Bacon

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Entrepreneur DNA

Episode: Inside Cornerstone X: How this 'She-E-O' Built the $30M AI Revolution
Host: Justin Colby
Guest: Chantelle Bacon, CEO of Cornerstone X
Date: October 6, 2025

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Overview:

This episode features Chantal Bacon, the dynamic founder and CEO of Cornerstone X, a fast-growing AI company that has rocketed to a $30M valuation in under two years. Chantal shares her unlikely journey from a non-business background in theology to leading disruptive technological innovation with AI metahumans, tackling not only business challenges but also societal ones. Her story blends themes of entrepreneurship, faith, resilience, mentorship, and a bold, global vision for AI.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Genesis and Mission of Cornerstone X

• Current Focus:

  • Cornerstone X creates “metahumans”—AI-powered avatars with human-like empathy and reasoning, aimed at solving customer experience challenges globally.
  • Applications span real estate, education, automotive, and governmental sectors.
  • Team of 22 people; now servicing clients internationally after 18 months of rapid growth.
  • “We went from slideware to now software that’s getting sold globally, internationally.” (Chantal, 03:54)

• AI Metahumans Explained:

  • Avatars function as virtual assistants with advanced business logic and real-time empathetic reasoning.
  • Businesses can design their own AI avatars with customizable personas and empathetic frameworks.
  • “If you get software engineers and people really designing and thinking those Persona frameworks that's given behind AI metahumans, you unleash gold dust.” (Chantal, 11:03)

2. The Power—and Limits—of AI

• Empathy and Reasoning:

  • The competitive edge of Cornerstone X is embedding empathy into metahuman AI, giving them actual reasoning abilities similar to humans.
  • “When you're able to design algorithms or think about empathy coming into the equation, it gives different outputs that come forth.” (Chantal, 07:18)

• AI as Productivity Tool, Not Replacement:

  • Chantal stresses that AI should augment, not replace, humans—especially in service roles.
  • “I don't see it as replacing humans. I see it as augmenting the way that a human can work using an AI tool.” (24:31)
  • Critical thinking and self-awareness are key to avoiding overdependence on AI tools like ChatGPT.

3. Growth, Clients, and Global Partnerships

• Client Base:

  • From small startups to government agencies, including the US Department of Homeland Security (Customs and Border Protection), Valornet (supporting veterans and first responders), automotive giants in Germany, and partnerships in the UK and UAE.
  • “We had a whole list of about 35 pages where we saw translation as a big issue…that helped us think about how we intelligently designed a metahuman.” (Chantal, 13:34)

• Sales & Expansion Approach:

  • Growth has been largely organic—built through direct relationships, word-of-mouth, and personal referrals rather than classic marketing.
  • “I don't have a PR team. I don't have a marketing division.” (Chantal, 34:05)
  • Heavy reliance on building trust, mentorship, and delivering on promises.

4. Personal Journey & Entrepreneurial DNA

• Foundations:

  • Raised as the child of Sri Lankan immigrants in Canada, Chantal credits her “limitless” upbringing, faith, and resilience to her entrepreneurial drive.
  • Background in theology increasingly informs her human-centric leadership and business philosophy.
  • “Sometimes many people underestimate philosophy or theology or liberal arts degrees there, but that taught me how to think…It starts with people.” (Chantal, 21:31)

• Faith and Perspective:

  • Faith is the cornerstone: “I'm a child of God. I'm a strong believer in Jesus Christ and I carry my FAIth with me no matter where I go.” (Chantal, 17:00)
  • Emphasizes never time-bounding her goals, instead focusing on “doing the right thing every single day.” (Chantal, 44:35)

5. Building a Team & Sacrifices

• Assembled a team significantly older than herself, focusing on finding the “right people in the right seats.”
• Made personal sacrifices, including not taking a paycheck for over two and a half years to fund the company and hire talent.
• “I sacrifice a lot of time and I sacrifice a lot of money … I've actually not taken a paycheck in over two and a half years because I use my paycheck to fund many people join the team and to come in.” (Chantal, 37:53)

6. Mentorship & Relationship Building

• The critical role of mentorship (notably Dave Wood)—connections rooted in trust and consistently delivering value.
• “Many of these connections that now come forth are because of good mentors that saw growth in my life. I was never perfect. Nobody’s ever perfect. But I was able to grow from opportunities, grow from—and I treated people with kindness and respect.” (Chantal, 33:10)

7. Vision for the Future

• Ambitious goals: Make Cornerstone X technology accessible and impactful for every culture and context globally.
• Upcoming expansions in small business support, partnerships, and new markets.
• “I want this technology to be used by every single culture that's there on this world. Otherwise I haven't succeeded.” (Chantal, 35:35)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On AI Empathy:
  “When you're able to design algorithms or think about empathy coming into the equation, it gives different outputs that come forth.”
  — Chantal Bacon, 07:18

• On Limiting Beliefs:
  “I grew up not ever knowing a limit. My parents raised me in a way to never see a limit in front of me other than my height … When you grow up in that framework of never knowing a limit, anything can be possible and achieved.”
  — Chantal Bacon, 16:45

• On Business and Theology:
  “Sometimes many people underestimate philosophy or theology or liberal arts degrees … but that taught me how to think and that taught me how to look at a person to figure out what is their meaning, their morality, their destiny and their virtues. And when you see a person from that perspective, then it's very easy for you to build that relationship and care about a person first for the business dealing that is supposed to come out of it.”
  — Chantal Bacon, 21:31

• On Sacrifice:
  “I've actually not taken a paycheck in over two and a half years because I use my paycheck to fund many people join the team and to come in.”
  — Chantal Bacon, 37:53

• On Global Vision:
  “I want this technology to be used by every single culture that's there on this world. Otherwise I haven't succeeded.”
  — Chantal Bacon, 35:35

• On Routine and Resilience:
  “6:30 alarm rings, I snuggle with my husband and have to force myself to get out of bed because I know by 6:45 if I'm up, I'm out … 7am My sister calls me … and we pray together. … 7:15 onwards meetings back to back to back.”
  — Chantal Bacon, 42:15

• On Success and Timing:
  “All you need to do is focus every single day on doing the right thing, making the right ethical decision … the next thing comes as a byproduct of it. Which is why I never time bound myself.”
  — Chantal Bacon, 44:35

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Timestamps of Key Segments

• Chantal’s background, Founder Story – 02:54–04:23
• Explaining Metahumans & AI Reasoning – 04:23–07:18
• Empathy in AI & Use Cases – 07:18–11:03
• Client Stories (Valornet, DHS, Germany, UK) – 12:46–15:36
• Personal Journey & Limitless Upbringing – 16:45–18:19
• Theology to Tech: Bridging the Gap – 21:28–23:38
• AI—Augmenting vs. Replacing Humans – 24:31–25:10
• Entrepreneurial Instincts and Calls to Action – 27:30–30:22
• Growth Without Marketing – 34:05–35:04
• Global Vision for Cornerstone X – 35:35–37:53
• Personal Sacrifice & Building a Team – 37:53–39:45
• Daily Routine & Faith Practices – 42:15–43:30
• Success Principles & Timeless Focus – 44:15–45:30
• Chantel’s Contact Info & Closing Thoughts – 45:42–46:27

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Summary

This episode serves as an inspiring and practical masterclass in self-made entrepreneurship, purposeful technology, and faith-driven leadership. Chantal Bacon's journey from theology to AI disruptor demonstrates that a strong vision, focus on people, and commitment to doing the right thing can create outsized, global impact—even without a traditional business background or playbook.

Listeners are left with actionable insights:

• Dream audaciously, build relentlessly, don’t limit your pace or scope.
• Invest in relationships and mentorship.
• Augment human effort with technology—never replace the heart of it.
• Center your leadership and success on purpose, faith, and values.

Find Chantal on LinkedIn: Chantal Bacon

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For Entrepreneurs:
If you're hesitant or stuck, take heart from Chantal’s story: “Anything is possible—sometimes, you just have to start.”

Transcript

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[Justin]

Up entrepreneur DNA family we are back and let me tell you, you are going to want to stay tuned to this episode. We have a mighty might in the house and she has probably the biggest allegiance with giants I've ever seen in my life. She's been in business for a year and a half. She doesn't have a business degree, didn't go to school for business, and she is crushing it on her entrepreneur journey. Chantelle Bacon is here.

[Chantelle Bacon]

Hi, it's good to be here. And greetings from West Palm Beach, Florida.

[Justin]

Yeah, it's gonna be fun. So listen, I think everyone needs to know your story. I think it's important to say where you are today and what you're currently working on. But very quickly, I need them to also understand the background of what got you here.

[Chantelle Bacon]

Okay?

[Justin]

Because everyone here is either an entrepreneur or an aspiring entrepreneur. They need to know why you're on this podcast, why you're so incredible. Okay? So let's just talk about Cornerstone X and what that is and who you're working with and what's going to be going on in the future. Because guess what, guys, it's AI. So just so you know, AI is a big theme here, but then we want to get into your background. What. What got you to the place? So what is Cornerstone X and what are you guys focusing on?

[Chantelle Bacon]

Okay, so past, present, future. You want to start off with where we are current, today, with present.

[Justin]

And then we're going to go past, and then we're going to go future.

[Chantelle Bacon]

Okay, sounds good to me. So I am a serial entrepreneur. My background was in theology, actually, no business degree. And right when Covid hit, I decided to learn about AI. I knew that the market was going into these areas. So while everybody was worried about the pandemic, I kind of went underground to teach myself and understand where this industry is going to potentially grow in the future. Yeah, fast forward to where we are today and we can unpack the past further. It was an element of us creating Cornerstone X 2 years ago. But really over the past 18 months, our company went from slideware to now software that's getting sold globally, internationally. Went out to fundraise. As somebody who's never taken a business course in my life and understood how you have to create a pitch deck or even speak about different topics, set forth with an idea to raise a million dollars in funding, and then within four months closed at 1.5 million and saw that here's the growth. But it's really somebody who's able to articulate a vision very well and be very clear and concise in that. So that's now led us to creating Cornerstone X, a global company with about 22 people working and creating AI metahumans in the area of customer experience. And it's there to help and support and service. So during this podcast, we can talk about the different opportunities that's now coming to CornerstoneX. But very blessed to be here and excited to see where AI is going to continue to expand and grow and leverage business opportunities.

[Justin]

AI is obviously the trigger word in the world right now. Right? Everyone's talking about it. So Cornerstone X has metahumans. Some people, when I think of metahuman, I think of like if I was on a FaceTime and there is not a human on the other end.

[Chantelle Bacon]

Yeah.

[Justin]

But it is a metahuman talking to me just like I'm talking to you this very second. This is what we're talking about. And you and. Or slash, this AI human bot, what would we call it? An AI.

[Chantelle Bacon]

Think of it as an AI avatar.

[Justin]

Avatar. Okay.

[Chantelle Bacon]

Yeah.

[Justin]

And they will help me, my company, with all things service component.

[Chantelle Bacon]

Exactly right. So you think about real estate, for example, if there are several different listings. What if you had a virtual assistant that is an AI metahuman, an avatar that is now embedded with business logic and intelligence to reason in real time and take action that you don't even need to be there, Justin, you have your own metahuman replica answering just the preliminary screen calls or helping somebody. Let's say you've got several tenants and you're trying to manage different properties. That's there. All of that can be done and automated through a very efficient metahuman.

[Justin]

Wouldn't every business want this?

[Chantelle Bacon]

Exactly why I went into this industry, because the use cases are very versatile. Right. And it can be applied globally as well too. So your pain points, say in real estate and entrepreneurship is very similar to those who are looking at education and AI, which is now heavily getting funded with the US Government. But also pain points and situations that are happening in Germany, in the automotive industry and looking at large catalogs, say for Mercedes Benz or Porsche or other companies out there where they have vast amounts of data, but they don't have enough people who have that intelligent business logic and reason to be able to take action in the real time without having to get multiple people involved.

[Justin]

So let's talk about reason because I think my own perspective of AI and I'm not a. I know nothing about AI, let's face it.

[Chantelle Bacon]

Okay.

[Justin]

The only caveat I think is I go to a place where I go, does everyone become mindless because they start to rely on AI, Right. And. And I want you to either prove me wrong or agree or where I don't care. But because I've seen so many of my friends, literally business owners friends, everything becomes chat gbt, like everything. And I go. So no one's gonna think critically for themselves anymore. So that's one of my questions towards this whole point. But the other thought is reason is what I believe. AI doesn't have the critical, the ability to critically reason like a human would. You were saying what you guys have created and have would have actual human like reasoning.

[Chantelle Bacon]

Correct. And one of the areas, one of the ways that you're able, we are able to do that is because of the keyword empathy. And when you're able to design algorithms or think about empathy coming into the equation, it gives different outputs that comes forth. So going back to the first part of your statement, yes, everyone is using ChatGPT. I am someone that is very pro AI.

[Justin]

Sure.

[Chantelle Bacon]

As somebody who did not know exactly, but had no context in AI originally, I became very pro AI because I saw how efficient my life became. But the real answer to your question is it actually boils down to the person and if they know their value and their worth. So for example, somebody being a founder and a CEO of a young AI company that's now worth $30 million, by.

[Justin]

The way, you started a year and a half ago.

[Chantelle Bacon]

Exactly right.

[Justin]

You should be very proud of yourself.

[Chantelle Bacon]

I have a stellar team. I'm. I'm proud of my team. And that's another topic we can discuss as well too. The essence of having the right people in the right seats makes a heck of a difference.

[Justin]

Absolutely.

[Chantelle Bacon]

But going back to the AI piece and the foundation that's there, if a person does not know their own limitations, their own capabilities, and cannot reasonably look at, let's say, what is the amount of asks that I'm pumping into ChatGPT? That takes away my business logic or critical assessment that I should be making first and foremost before I need AI to supplement a topic, it boils down to that person. So I would throw the answer back or the question back to you and even to your listeners when you're assessing, is this AI technology going to make us stupid in the future? Are we going to all become dumb? Are we all going to be dependent on AI? It really boils down to the person's level of engagement with AI. Number two, how do they value their own mental well being and health? Because you cannot rely on that in the long term. There is a sense of level and it really depends if people are very proactive. They want to get into business, entrepreneurship, high level of like Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

[Justin]

Right.

[Chantelle Bacon]

You start to get that self actualization and you've learned for yourself and you're progressing. I don't really rely on ChatGPT, but I may use it if I have to write some emails. But I'm never allowing it to come in there and look at the business logic and reason for me on my behalf. I may first do my assessments, but then I'll go there to see and validate. Okay, does this make sense? Is this lining up with a good framework that I could use? Or take a point from ChatGPT and embed it in mind, but that's how I still keep my brain sharp.

[Justin]

Yeah. So now moving into what you guys have built at CornerstoneX, you have the ability to create empathy within these avatars, the metahumans.

[Chantelle Bacon]

Yeah.

[Justin]

And that is. So you guys have some pretty awesome clients. And I don't know if you mentioned them or not, but if you can, let's talk about them. And you have some pretty awesome things on Horizon that I've heard about that seem pretty awesome, but those clients and. Or your. Your clients, they need to teach the avatar the empathy. Is it built in?

[Chantelle Bacon]

How does that work on our platform? There's a section inside there where you can literally click and choose your metahuman. I'm going to encourage you to use that term, metahuman.

[Justin]

There you go.

[Chantelle Bacon]

But to use the metahuman skins, you can pick the hair, the size, the color, et cetera. You can choose that. But number two, in the layer of this cake that we're building, you're super metahuman. For example, the second layer is a Persona that you give to the metahuman, and that's where you hear about prompt engineering. For example, you hear about different ways that. Okay, so you stay in this framework. What if it goes off the guardrails? How's it not going to hallucinate, et cetera?

[Justin]

Right.

[Chantelle Bacon]

When you give it some really good Persona frameworks, that's there. That's the key. If you get software engineers and people really designing and thinking those Persona frameworks that's given behind AI metahumans, you unleash gold dust. That's there because it can be applied in so many different areas of a business.

[Justin]

So this can be applied to someone that has a $500,000 business or a $500 million. I mean, literally, this will be utilized. Any company that needs support, we can utilize Cornerstone X.

[Chantelle Bacon]

Exactly right.

[Justin]

This is going to be. I mean, you literally are on the precipice of changing the world. I mean, the clients. Are you able to talk about your current clientele?

[Chantelle Bacon]

Absolutely.

[Justin]

Who are you guys currently working with?

[Chantelle Bacon]

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[Chantelle Bacon]

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[Chantelle Bacon]

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[Chantelle Bacon]

Many and it's so some of our clients are as small as a digital app. Our first customer that really believed in us was a company called Ballarnet and the co founders one is actually in Orlando and this gentleman saw where we were going in the market about 10, 12 months ago, invested in our company, but also said I want to use it for my digital app. Valornet is an app that's used for first responders, military veterans in the United States that are transitioning out of the workforce that they were a part of. But now in case they have any mental well being or health issues that start to arise and come forth any they can have access to valornet and Cornerstone X is the AI power for valornet. They are literally speaking to our technology, our metahuman which is called hope, helping other people efficiently. And the beauty of that is by creating a product that's named hope, you're now able to distribute HOPE and give it to multiple people around the world. So some of our clients are digital apps. One of our large clients is the United States government, the Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection. And this is where I want to give a big shout out to cbp, Customs and Border Protection, the headquarters in Ashburn for many of the, I would say officers there on the ground, but also the executive leadership that really championed us on they believed in the vision about 18 months ago and allowed us to go to different airports and interview different officers to really find out what are those pain points that the officers have as they are the first line responders to anybody coming to the United States. After a lot of research and development with them, we had a whole list of about 35 pages where we saw translation as a big issue. We saw that understanding and comprehension, long wait times, having the officers be in front of a person that may not understand English, but then it's a whole different subject that they need to be able to convey to a person that's never come to the United States. That helped us think about how we intelligently designed a metahuman. Which is why the story for Cornerstone is really about a year, but the first year was R and D and just being boots on the ground looking at pain points that's there. Not only are we in the United States, but we also have alliance with giants in Germany and in the UK now starting to expand and grow opportunities for us. So we've signed 10 year partnership deals one with Hanselman and Company that's all in the automotive industry and industrial goods industry and then another one is with Commercial Limited out in the uk. So very, very proud of our team and we head to the UAE for more meetings and expansion and, and growth ideas and opportunities there.

[Justin]

I'm sitting here and I've done a lot of interviews. I'm sitting here just thinking like, oh my God, like what you've done in, let's just call it two years. Really, it's been what, a year, year and a half?

[Chantelle Bacon]

Yeah.

[Justin]

I mean you've beyond like you are the new coming, like this is insane of what you've been able to accomplish because. And, and I want people to understand your background but it's not like you were like around people that were like, oh let me, you know, your parents aren't the parents that like have the connection to the Prime Minister type of thing. Right. Like this is self built from the beginning to like so go into a little bit of your background like yeah, let's talk about like the concept of where this started but even just like who you are and what made you have this type of drive to get to where you're at. Because if anything that someone who's a lifelong entrepreneur knows like it is a very hard road. None of it is easy. Even when it's great and winning, it isn't easy to win. Right. And so let's go into a little bit of your background for a second so people understand like I mean really that fucking anything's possible.

[Chantelle Bacon]

Absolutely. So Justin, for me I grew up not ever knowing a limit. My parents raised me in a way to never see a limit in front of me other than my height. I am petite, but other than my height.

[Justin]

You're a mighty mite, as we were just discussing.

[Chantelle Bacon]

Right, exactly right. When you grow up in that framework of never knowing a limit, anything can be possible and achieved. So first and foremost, who am I? I'm a child of God. I'm a strong believer in Jesus Christ and I carry my FAI faith with me no matter where I go because I lived a season of my life without it. And I know what unshakable faith looks like now, which is where this beautiful blessing and anointing that comes to me to impact people and to care about the person first started to become a part of my DNA. So when you think of an entrepreneur's DNA, in my shoes it looked like this. My parents were two newcomers to Canada, so I'm from Toronto, born in Toronto, but my parents came from Sri Lanka. Flooding. Flooding. A Civil war. Fleeing a civil war. Thank you. And when they came, they had to start life with one suitcase in wintertime and leaving a tiny island not knowing what the outcomes would be. So they always raised us up to work hard, think about education, think about achieving, because that will end you or take you out of a cycle of poverty that could be there. So my parents never had kids until nine years into their marriage because they had to be smart with their money, start life and start to grow.

[Justin]

Yeah.

[Chantelle Bacon]

Fast forward to part of my DNA formed. I never took a business background or never thought about going into business because as a South Asian female, many people want us to go into, say, medicine, go become an attorney, think about conventional careers. That's there. So with my attitude and mindset, I thought, let me try that. But my faith element started to come strong in front of me and I thought I would be a youth pastor or go into ministry or go along those lines because I cared about people. I deeply do. That's a part of our ethos and our company and everything that we do globally. And with that framework in mind, it helped me to build the foundation of who I am today. Because I never want any of your listeners to ever be discouraged. I. And to think that they don't have a purpose or they don't know what's next, or they don't know what their calling is. And once I started to wake up to these dreams right at the beginning of COVID I call it these prophetic insights or divine encounters where I'm waking up to dreams and I'm thinking, what are these black boxes? What is a black box? And what does this even look like? One by one by one, I started to realize back at those times and dates we were talking about AI and it takes a lot of guts and courage for someone to take their dreams and literally try to build it out.

[Justin]

No doubt.

[Chantelle Bacon]

So I would love to see more entrepreneurs that's also in this field taking those big risks, those leap of fates, but also building their alliance with giants, with people that truly have a vested interest in them and also for the vision that they have.

[Justin]

Yeah. I mean, it's so important for people to understand, like, it's not always a bigger, more thought out plan. Sometimes you just go, yeah, yeah. You have to start like you just, you have a good idea and you're like, I think this is a good idea. I'm gonna go. And you went. And if. If there's something people can take from this, and I need everyone to start following this human. She is unbelievable. On so many different levels. We're just talking about business and some of your background, but like what you are creating, what you've created and what is happening in the world. You're going to be a leader at the forefront of this for a long, long time. So make sure we are following Chantelle and do you have a handle like Instagram or where would you like them to kind of go follow you and would be perfect. LinkedIn.

[Chantelle Bacon]

Yep.

[Justin]

Where would you like to follow?

[Chantelle Bacon]

So, chantal bacon on LinkedIn. Yeah.

[Justin]

C h A N T A L Bacon. Like the food. Thank you so much. Getting back to kind of like that journey of like you went to school for theology and here we are running technology, straight technology, and probably one of the bigger in the space for the reasonable future. How do you bridge that gap? Like I was an English major and I went into business. I feel like you could at least say, like, I don't know, I need to know how to talk well and write well. Like there's some components you could probably make an argument. Theology to huge tech company. That's not a total. There's not much of a bridge that you can point to. How did you do that?

[Chantelle Bacon]

For me, I saw the bridge.

[Justin]

Okay.

[Chantelle Bacon]

And the common denominator between both of those bridges or pieces of land, that common denominator is people. Sometimes many people underestimate philosophy or theology or liberal arts degrees there, but that taught me how to think and that taught me how to look at a person to figure out what is their meaning, their morality, their destiny and their virtues. And when you see a person from that perspective, then it's very easy for you to build that relationship and care about a person first for the business dealing that is supposed to come out of it. There's many elements in business that's replicated in theology, but it starts with people. And I think this is where a lot of people tend to forget those elements when they're trying to scale and grow companies, when they're trying to network, I don't really network. I don't need to network because I always believe in organic connections coming. And if it's meant to be, it's meant to be. And there's so many lessons learned. There's lessons that are earned and when people have that self reflection of themself, but they look to see in those lessons that were earned, probably 90% or 95% of those lessons had to revolve around a person. And sometimes it's realizing, okay, what could have been done differently? How could I have changed or if it was not the good fit, don't force that fit to happen. And those are elements that you also learn in theology when it's around a person's destiny in their life, where are they, where are they going and when they die. And those types of worldviews helped me connect with people all over the world. The German culture, European culture, South Asian culture, many areas. Which is why I could walk into rooms and let's say there's a sheikh in front of me. I knew exactly how to greet them. I knew exactly what worldview they had because I studied theology. It doesn't matter if there's an atheist in the room or not. It's just being able to respect them. But you have a commonality between you and that person that's naturally or organically built. And that's how I built my business.

[Justin]

So there's two concepts. And by the way, I don't even know how long do we have a clock Flasmore running time? What is the running time? 25. Oh, yeah. Okay, so when we get to 40, like, just give me a signal. Go ahead. Yeah, just give me a signal when you hit a 40. Because I've seen like 40 to 45 is like my sweet spot. Okay, so we talked a lot about humans. The dichotomy is you went into a tech business that from my outside perspective, you're almost replacing humans with the technology.

[Chantelle Bacon]

Hmm.

[Justin]

How do you, like, where's the bridge on that?

[Chantelle Bacon]

Good question. For me, I don't see it as replacing humans. I see it as augmenting the way that a human can work using an AI tool.

[Justin]

Right.

[Chantelle Bacon]

That's there. I'm not asking anybody to be dependent on a human, a metahuman, for as long as they have to live. It has to be on 24. 7 and that's the only thing you're talking to. It actually becomes a business tool that could be used to help enhance a person's day and take off a lot of the low level tasks that's there and help a person like you focus on the high level tasks where your time should be putting, going into and creating impact.

[Justin]

As I ask and you answer, one of the thoughts I was even thinking is you're going to allow a lot of people who do aspire to be an entrepreneur the ability to be an entrepreneur. Because that service of being a service agent in my world is probably the hardest thing to hire, train, retain, financially compensate, keep them excited to be doing their job. Like the service space of like the complaints or the, the challenges. Or the refunds or all these different things. Trying to keep someone excited to be like the person on the phone. Dealing with those things of service is very challenging. So as I asked that question, it wasn't posed to necessarily challenge the. The business. It was more posed, like, I actually think you're going to open up the human ability to go for more with just some help. Right in that amount of help is going to be huge. I do want to get to. You didn't really have a business, like. So I guess, let me take it this way. I grew up in a place where I didn't know it. I can't even see it now. I was always an entrepreneur. So when I was a kid, I would like open up baseball card boxes in the store and sell back the better ones to the store owner.

[Chantelle Bacon]

It's in your DNA.

[Justin]

Right. Like during recycling day, I would go and take my bicycle and I'd go get the bottles and cans and I would take it to the recycling place because they would give me a penny or five cents.

[Chantelle Bacon]

Yes.

[Justin]

Like, I just. Now I understand what I was doing.

[Chantelle Bacon]

Yeah.

[Justin]

Did you have any. Any of that going through school, growing up? Like. Because the, the. What I see is like almost this line that you just like went to school and you went to Oxford, you went to incredible school, you went for theology. And then all of a sudden this massively successful business person. Technology. Is there a bridge in that of. Because where I want the listener audience at least to see is sometimes it's just the idea that you're so passionate about that you just start going. And if that is the answer, great. I don't want to put words in your mouth, but I'm a big advocate of people becoming entrepreneurs because most people are dying inside with the job.

[Chantelle Bacon]

Yeah.

[Justin]

And just the ability to feel autonomy, to do what you want, when you want, how you want, with who you want, I think would help a lot of people's happiness, frankly.

[Chantelle Bacon]

Yes.

[Justin]

So talk. Talk about your journey a little bit on that.

[Chantelle Bacon]

So it's in my DNA as well. And I didn't realize that until I hit my early 30s. I'm 33 right now, but I was 30 when I realized, shoot, I've got to stop trying to apply for jobs or going into these, into academia, other areas when I need to do what I'm naturally good at. And a great saying that came to me when I was getting married from my husband actually. He said, sometimes in life you either become an entrepreneur or you end up working for one. And that's when it Hit me because I was running away from this calling. I did not want to become an entrepreneur because it's not a traditional job that you're going to see young females in their 20s taking that risk to dive into. So I had to stop running and realize I have natural born instincts such as the same that you have as well. Sometimes when you see things where, okay, I can flip this, or I can get more revenue out of this, or if I actually invest in these areas, I can yield a better dividend in the future. It was all inside of me, but I never had the courage to capitalize on that and to move. And the main reason for me that made that shift is because my husband was in the area of private equity. And I got a scholarship to come to the US to do my doctorate in AI and technology because all I had studied was theology. And I thought, you know what? Let me go try to study AI and go into this area. So when I was in school, he was working for a big software company in Manhattan. The private equity division closed down. So he was given X amount of weeks notice for that. But then we both looked at each other and he had seen those entrepreneurial traits within me and gave me the courage to actually say, you've got to dive into this. Because every time, no matter where we're going, you're either stepping up in leadership, you're thinking about opportunities, or trying to fix problems if you're a natural problem solver. And I had no light in my eyes during that time. There was no spark.

[Justin]

That is definitely different now.

[Chantelle Bacon]

Correct. And that's because I found myself and I know my calling. And too many people walk on the streets, New York City, Louisiana, Miami, South Florida, where we're from, and don't have a reason why they're there, or they're just doing it for their paycheck. Which for me, those are the things that makes me upset.

[Justin]

Yeah.

[Chantelle Bacon]

So part of the things that I want to change about that is actually creating this metahuman platform where we're going to be launching a partnership that comes out for 2026, allowing small businesses to actually utilize our technology and platform. But you can co create with it and you get the autonomy to actually apply it in your businesses and use it and nonprofit situations and circumstances as well. Because I think that there are, there's a lot of room for more entrepreneurs to play in.

[Justin]

Yeah.

[Chantelle Bacon]

And remember that saying, it's either you become one or you end up working for one. So everybody that is still in their 9 to 5 job, they're working for entrepreneurs.

[Justin]

Yeah.

[Chantelle Bacon]

It all started somewhere.

[Justin]

So you just talked about what's coming in 2026. What is, whatever you can mention, like what's on the horizon. What are you currently working on? You're here in Miami right now recording this. You have meetings tonight. What are the meetings about? What's, what's moving forward here to finish this year.

[Chantelle Bacon]

So I have and I want to do a shout out to our incredible team at CornerstoneX. I am 33. Most of the executives in my team are maybe double the age that I'm in or close. But I love working with them, incredible intelligent human beings. So this evening some of them are flying to Miami. We're all getting together in Sunny Isles just to talk about the growth plan. Plan and strategy. It's coming for 2026 onwards. And then tomorrow we're going to Fort Lauderdale, meeting with our chief Technology officer who's there and going into a boardroom, whiteboarding. What's the roadmap for the product? What are the new features we want to embed into the technology.

[Justin]

Yeah.

[Chantelle Bacon]

And then starting to get ready to launch and travel to probably three or four countries. That's coming up in a few weeks.

[Justin]

So that was another thing. How are you getting your clients? I mean your clients are, you know, like, it's not like you have like a little, you know, cupcake, you know, store like you have some major like the government. Right. Like, how does that even come about?

[Chantelle Bacon]

One gentleman? Oh, it came through mentors. I found good mentors and I found good for me. I care about faith like hundred percent.

[Justin]

Yeah.

[Chantelle Bacon]

Because I've seen the difference between working with people who have no faith, background or upbringing and those who have that. And I found for me, I would credit a lot of this to a mentor called named Dave Wood, David Wood, who is in the Virginia area. But he caught hold of my vision years before and tried to make opportunities or just tried to give me a lead, get to know a person. And he ended up sewing seeds in my life. Many of these connections that now come forth are because of good mentors that saw growth in my life. I was never perfect. Nobody's ever perfect. But I was able to grow from opportunities, grow from. And I treated people with kindness and respect. And some people forget the follow up I did. I did for a number of years. Some people forget to acknowledge emails. One of my pet peeves. Or when people don't take the time to respond to an email because a human being has reached out to you, at least acknowledge it. It took us a While to even get your email into the pipeline and then to book this meeting. But here we are today and I'm learning to practice what I preach better. But also a lot of these leads and connections came from people that saw the proven track record of me delivering on what I said I would do. They bought into that vision and then made the introductions.

[Justin]

There's, there's a saying, but something about like you make more money through people than you do through your traditional methods. Like the more hands you shake, the more money you make. Right. That's the classic saying. I've always believed it is. Why I've built the community I've built is because when you do good by people, you offer value and create a win win scenario. The, the doors open up for all opportunities. Right. And so you're just another example of leaning into your resource which was at the this guy Dave Wood, right. And he leaned into him and he kept trying to offer assistance and you said, hey, I'm here to make those connections. And one connection led to another and another you've done. No, I mean maybe it's different now, but for that first year to year and a half, did you do any typical classic style marketing? Is it all face to face, shaking hands, kissing babies?

[Chantelle Bacon]

Exactly. I don't have a PR team, I don't have a marketing division.

[Justin]

And you're, you're travel the world to do essentially the very same thing. Hey, let's book a meeting with so and so company. Let's go sit down in their boardroom, let's show them the vision. You said something earlier that I meant to hit on. But you talk about stories, you talk about stories and I think I know as someone who sells, I know stories sell. And when you go into a meeting and you're able to show a story in a vision, I mean there's probably no one better, right? I mean if you put you against Elon Musk right now, I'm going to say you're going to win the sales debate, you're going to win the client. Right? Talk us through like what this kind of journey. Where's the bigger vision of what you are creating? Because I would love for people to understand, like the leaders in technology, the leaders in I yourself. What's it all? Where are we all going with it? Where's your vision?

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[Chantelle Bacon]

Yeah, great, great questions. That's right there. It's where am I going with this ideas and the technology, I'm taking it so it has a global impact, number one. Number two, I want this technology to be used by every single culture that's there on this world. Otherwise I haven't succeeded. And I have an ambitious and audacious goal for that to happen. But that's why alliance with certain giants and different billion dollar companies are now wanting to partner together.

[Justin]

Have you ever heard of Steve Jobs reality distortion field?

[Chantelle Bacon]

No. Tell me more.

[Justin]

I think you have it. Okay, so he is known if you watch his biography, movie or read his book. So I study like the greats, the people like really won in a big way business wise. Okay, so he was known as having a reality distortion field. Like the, the classic story is the, the glass at the Apple stores was glass that like was only coming out of China was like a bajillion dollars per square foot or something. And he just told his team, no, we're going to make that happen, but we're not going to pay those prices. Go do it. And he leaves the room and story after story after story of saying no, that's not accurate. We can do it better and cheaper and whatever and you got this, you're perfect, go get it done. And they somehow, over and over and over again his team would find ways to get his reality to happen the way he wanted it. And you're talking in a very reality distortion feel way. Like I want it to be global. I want it to impact every human on the planet. I want, you know, in all these things. And I just believe that that is capable if you can really believe it's doable. Right, because it's been proven over and over again. And so you have that special characteristic. Elon has a very similar thing. All the greats kind of have this distortion of what reality is like. No, that's not possible. You can't, you can't get this global and you can't get this into the government. Who are you? You're a theology major, you know what I mean? And you just say no, we're gonna go do it. So what sacrifices are you gonna have to make? What are you willing to make to go get this to where you believe it Needs to be.

[Chantelle Bacon]

I sacrifice. Oh, that's such a great question. I sacrifice a lot of time and I sacrifice a lot of money in the sense of I've actually not taken a paycheck in over two and a half years because I use my paycheck to fund many people join the team and to come in. And when you recruit top tier talent, those are cheap. Exactly right. So there's sacrifices where as a founder, I have to be. It's up to me. It's a choice that I have to make. But in order for this utopia or this distortion of say truth or the reality that's there in front of me. Funny that you actually mention it because I actually live that and I didn't even realize that I do that until you've made this known to me because that's. It goes back to what I said earlier, not knowing that you live in a limit. And I grew up in that mindset that nothing is really impossible. There's no such thing as a limit. Many people put artificial limitations on themselves. And I've now come to the point where I don't sacrifice my health and well being. I'm trying not to sacrifice my family. So my husband joins me on the road when we've got different speaking engagements or work engages. Your husband, by the way, he is, he is the Ben Bacon. Yes, that's right. Irish background and from Minnesota. And he is my COO for the company really being with me since it started, even could potentially be the co founder alongside. But he gave up a lot and he sacrificed many things and time and jobs where he could have brought home the bacon, but instead decided to join me in this endeavor. And it's really amazing to have a husband who has that humility where he's willing to lay down the career, the ambition and the drives that he has to say, you know what? I'm going to come alongside my wife and support her and take this vision forward with both of us together. It's just increase the opportunities that's come forth and we're very blessed and grateful.

[Justin]

You've done an incredible. I mean, you two should be incredibly proud of what you guys have done. I mean I've been around a lot of very successful individuals and to have this type of meteoric ride, like a year and a half, two years most. And to be working with the government and Oracle and these names that everyone's aware of.

[Chantelle Bacon]

Yeah, Nvidia is another one too. We were at the Nvidia conference earlier this year in San Jose and then going to Washington D.C. to meet with Nvidia very soon for other opportunities.

[Justin]

Incredible. I mean, you're in the right rooms, you've done the right thing. What gets like, what do you have to do internally? What gets you fired up to say, I gotta go do this? Because it's not easy to be able to say. Like, it's almost like, I'll say it my way. It's like this. I'm getting it done. Like, you almost get so fired up, like you want to run through a wall.

[Chantelle Bacon]

Yeah.

[Justin]

Because that's what it's going to take to get to where you want to go. What do you have to do mentally, spiritually? Do you have to go get fired up and hit the gym and cold plunge and do all this stuff, or do you have to go to a calm place and meditate and breathe? Where do you go to kind of get this gumption to go? I'm going.

[Chantelle Bacon]

Truth is, I actually go to the Bible.

[Justin]

Okay.

[Chantelle Bacon]

And I go to the Bible because that's where this discernment and wisdom has actually really come from. Sometimes when I really need that inspiration, I'm not listening to Tony Robbins or other people that are out there in the industry, but I go back to like the ancient texts, such as King Solomon, for example. Has anybody ever studied King Solomon's business plan? I would. That's my challenge and my gauntlet I'm going to throw to you. Go back and study King Solomon's business plan and see how he conquered empires, dynasties, kingdoms. He was the most wealthiest man in the, in the world.

[Justin]

Yeah.

[Chantelle Bacon]

And just going back to read and see the lessons that they've all learned, that teaches me something every single day. And I need to be in a quiet place. I do go to my backyard and just stop, unplug for a little while, get better at journaling and writing from the notes that I see in the Bible. But oh, all, all of my business gold nuggets are from the Bible. A hundred percent offline. We can talk about this if you'd like, but that's a great answer.

[Justin]

So. And we'll leave it here. But I think I get asked, what is my morning routine more than any question that. So I will give it to you. What is your morning routine? To wake up energized every single day.

[Chantelle Bacon]

6:30 alarm rings, I snuggle with my husband and have to force myself to get out of bed because I know by 6:45 if I'm up, I'm out, brushing teeth, dressed, ready. Within 15 minutes. And 7am My sister calls me, I spend 15 minutes with her. So she is Charlene Sapphi in New York City, works at Columbia University in the medical ethics department there. And she calls me every day for 15 minutes so she can give me a quick update and I share an update and we pray together. And this bond between two sisters praying together also helps me to bring compassion into the work field and the workforce that's there. 7:15 onwards meetings back to back to back. Sometimes I don't stop on Zoom until 4pm and then at the 4pm Mark, it's. It's literally back to back to back, where I have to sneak a bite in if I can. 4pm onwards, done. And then stop to meditate, to reflect, to check in with my husband, go for a bike ride, a little bit of a workout or swimming at that time frame, and then the evening shift begins. Our team is in India, our team's in England in the UK and now growing in Germany. So I've got to be available in different time zones at Sarah. That's a whole different level of complexity.

[Justin]

Oh, it comes forth.

[Chantelle Bacon]

Yeah.

[Justin]

I've. I have something that is really important to me and I call it the five Laws of Success. Curious what you think about them. First, you have to decide what you want and then who you need to be to get what you want, because you have to be in alignment with what you want. Two, you got to commit to it. Three, you got to take massive action. Blind action, wrong action, Correct action, action, action, action. Four, being incredibly uncomfortable because every time you hit a new level of something, it's brand new, so you've never been there before. So that's incredibly uncomfortable. And number five, don't put a time expectation on the results you're trying to achieve. So you just say you want this to be global, you want this to impact every human on the planet. If you would have said any level of time limitation, the podcast episode would have changed because then I would have started challenging you.

[Chantelle Bacon]

Yeah.

[Justin]

Because I believe just by sitting with you for the last hour, you're going to achieve this. I believe, with everything in me.

[Chantelle Bacon]

Thank you.

[Justin]

But if you would have said, I'm gonna go do it in a year or two years or five years or 10, anything, then we would have had a challenging conversation because I would have challenged your belief that it was gonna happen in a timeframe, why can't it just happen as fast as you can possibly make it happen?

[Chantelle Bacon]

Correct. And that's where in entrepreneurship, if we've got a couple minutes, something I do wanna say to your listeners is in entrepreneurships many times we're thinking about the exit many times we're thinking about okay we want to get an M and A, we want to sell this we want to the next next next thing that's there but my CFO named Ali Peerboy he taught me an exit comes but it's a byproduct of doing the right thing. And all you need to do is focus every single day on doing the right thing, making the right ethical decision, choosing not to partner with people because you know their motives or where the money's actually coming from. You have to do the right thing every day. The next thing comes as a byproduct of it. Which is why I never time bound myself. Never time bound myself. And that's a simple mistake that many entrepreneurs do.

[Justin]

Chantelle Bacon this has been great.

[Chantelle Bacon]

It is. This was very fun episode.

[Justin]

Um let every LinkedIn is that the best place to find you or you want to have them go to the website or anything else that you want.

[Chantelle Bacon]

To LinkedIn is perfect. Reach out there. Always looking for partnerships, looking for new opportunities starting to expand in other countries use cases that's there if people want pilots even willing to talk about what a free pilot looks like if needed be but to have those conversations and start to make organic connections. And I'm also very passionate about South Florida as I moved here. So always looking to grab a cup of coffee or speak to very interesting people along the way.

[Justin]

Everybody make sure you give her a follow on LinkedIn. Contact her. She's incredible. Her husband Ben is incredible. You are going to achieve this for sure. Knowing you for all of an hour I can just see it. I can tell. Great job. You should be very proud of yourself.

[Chantelle Bacon]

Thank you. And I'm proud of everyone in my team as well. And thank you for the opportunity, Justin. Really, really appreciate it.

[Justin]

Yeah guys, if this was pretty cool and you think there's a couple people that like to know her or just interested in AI and where this is going. Share this with at least two of your friends. I'd appreciate it. See you on the next episode. Peace.

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[Chantelle Bacon]

Was it the bun?

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