How to Leverage AI-Powered Customer Feedback to Scale Faster and Grow Smarter | Eli Portnoy
In this episode of An Hour of Innovation podcast, Vit Lyoshin sits down with Eli Portnoy, a seasoned entrepreneur and founder of BackEngine.ai, to explore how AI is changing the game when it comes to customer feedback and product development.
Eli shares his journey building multiple tech companies and the insight that led him to start BackEngine - a platform that transforms scattered customer interactions across emails, video calls, and support tickets into structured, actionable insights. Together, they dive into why traditional feedback loops break as companies scale, how AI can automate the messy parts of product discovery, and how product, customer success, and marketing teams can align around the voice of the customer.
You’ll also hear how BackEngine’s AI helps validate feature ideas, surface hidden churn risks, and even generate synthetic customer surveys - all with the goal of helping teams build smarter, faster, and more confidently.
Whether you're a founder, product leader, or just curious about how AI is reshaping the future of product development, this episode is full of practical insights and forward-looking ideas.
Eli Portnoy is a serial entrepreneur and the founder of BackEngine.ai, an AI-powered platform that helps teams operationalize customer feedback at scale. He previously founded Thinknear (acquired by Telenav) and Sense360 (acquired by Medallia), and also worked as a product leader at Amazon. With over 15 years of experience building tech companies, Eli is passionate about helping businesses deeply understand their customers and move faster with confidence.
Support This Podcast
This episode is brought by: https://pheedback.co/
Pheedback is an AI-powered platform that transforms traditional surveys into dynamic conversations, delivering deeper insights and higher response rates.
Takeaways
- Startups often lose touch with their customers as they grow.
- AI can help capture and analyze customer feedback effectively.
- Frequent communication with customers is crucial for retention.
- Understanding customer needs can prevent churn.
- Feedback should be seen as a gift, not criticism.
- BackEngine.ai can help validate product ideas and features.
- Large companies struggle with customer feedback due to complexity.
- Startups have the advantage of agility in responding to feedback.
- The future of AI holds great potential for transforming customer insights.
Timestamps
00:00 Introduction
03:44 The Role of AI in Feedback Collection
07:53 Example of How AI Helped Figure Out Customer Churn
09:26 Customer Communication Channels
11:07 Brainstorming and Prototyping with AI
12:19 Who are the Users of Back Engine
15:08 Validating Customer Feedback and Ideas
16:36 Prioritization and Recommendations
17:51 Dealing with Unused Features
19:08 Beyond Customer Feedback
25:10 The Evolution of Customer Feedback in Startups
28:40 Challenges of Large Organizations in Customer Feedback
34:24 The Future of AI and Customer Feedback
39:16 Advice for First-Time Founders
Connect with Eli
- Website: https://www.backengine.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eliportnoy/
- X: https://x.com/eportnoy
Connect with Vit
- Website: https://vitlyoshin.com/contact/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vit-lyoshin/
- X: https://x.com/vitlyoshin
- Buy things on Amazon that Vit Lyoshin recommends: https://www.amazon.com/shop/anhourofinnovationwithvitlyoshin
