Every founder convinces themselves they’re being reasonable. Then they try to build something great and realize reason alone won’t get them there. The CEOs who scale aren’t just strategic. They’re slightly unreasonable, wildly optimistic, and willing to break their own assumptions in order to create something bigger than themselves.
My guest on The Scaling CEO, Fran Brzyski, embodies that mindset. Fran is the co-founder and CEO of Hummingbird, a compliance and investigations platform used by banks, fintechs, crypto companies, and financial institutions to fight fraud, money laundering, and financial crime.
His journey blends creativity, experimentation, and a willingness to live in the gray zone long enough for clarity to appear.
“It takes a little crazy to try things out… you have to see around corners.”
This is what real scaling looks like: a mix of intuition, persistence, and just enough madness to try what others won’t.
Creativity Is a CEO’s Most Underrated Skill
Some founders build with spreadsheets. Fran builds with imagination, then uses logic to refine it. His approach is more artistic than mechanical.
He told me his earliest jobs weren’t in tech. They were in painting, design, and creative projects. That background influenced his entire leadership style.
“I went to art school. I studied painting. I was always obsessed with design.”
He sees product development as an act of creation, not simply execution. That mindset helped Hummingbird rethink compliance workflows from the ground up.
Most CEOs underestimate how far creativity can take them. For Fran, it was the spark that shaped the company’s early DNA.
You Can’t Analyze Your Way Out of Ambiguity
Fran didn’t start Hummingbird with a perfect plan. He started with unclear signals, partial answers, and a willingness to test half-formed ideas.
At one point, he described the early-stage process as: “Walking in the fog… you have to get comfortable with the idea you won’t know everything.”
Most founders panic in that fog. Great CEOs learn to walk confidently anyway.
That tolerance for uncertainty allowed Fran to find product–market fit in a space where regulation, risk, and customer expectations change constantly.
Compliance Isn’t Boring. It’s a Competitive Advantage.
When you operate in financial crime prevention, every customer deals with complexity. Every decision has regulatory consequences. Every workflow matters.
Fran realized banks and fintechs weren’t struggling because they lacked talent; they were struggling because their tools were decades behind.
“We saw so many organizations doing massively important work… but they were stuck. The industry wasn’t giving them what they needed.”
Hummingbird wasn’t built as a feature upgrade. It was built as a systems rethink.
That’s why it resonated. Fran didn’t give the industry a better tool. He gave it a new foundation.
AI Isn’t the Goal, But Instead the Amplifier
Many CEOs bolt AI onto their product. Fran went a different direction: he rebuilt the workflow architecture so AI could improve every step of the investigation process.
AI writes case narratives, accelerates repetitive tasks, structures insights and highlights patterns humans would miss. But Fran is candid about what AI can and cannot do.
“AI is not going to replace decision-making… it helps investigate faster, prepare faster, communicate faster.”
His goal isn’t automation, it’s amplification. Humans stay in control. AI handles the drag.
That’s the right approach in an industry where accuracy isn’t optional.
Great CEOs Don’t Chase Velocity, They Build It
Fran’s leadership style centers on combining opposing forces:
- fast and thoughtful
- bold and cautious
- imaginative and analytical
This duality is what keeps Hummingbird moving forward without rushing into mistakes.
When I asked him how he stays grounded, he said something every CEO should hear: “You have to balance risk. Push enough to keep moving, but not enough to break things permanently.”
Scaling is not reckless speed. It’s intentional momentum.
The Founder Identity Shift
One of the most interesting parts of Fran’s journey is how he grew into leadership. Early on, he carried everything himself, from product decisions and customer conversations to team direction. At some point, that model broke.
He realized the company needed a CEO, not a super-operator. The shift was internal first, external second.
“You start as the person doing everything… then you have to grow into being the person who creates space for the team to do their best work.”
Wisdom like that only arrives after the struggle.
You Need a Little Madness to Innovate and a Lot of Discipline to Scale
The combination is what defines Fran: a willingness to explore the unconventional, paired with a respect for systems, safety and regulatory precision.
Most founders lean too far in one direction. He manages to do both.
And that’s why Hummingbird works.
Final Takeaway
You don’t build something great by being perfectly rational. You build it by embracing the fog, staying curious, listening to customers and holding just enough craziness to push beyond the obvious without crossing the line into chaos.
Fran Brzyski shows that the future belongs to CEOs who think creatively, act intentionally and use AI to support human judgment rather than replace it.
I’m Glenn Gow. I coach CEOs who want to scale by blending creativity with disciplined execution. On my podcast, I reveal the strategies top leaders use to grow bigger, faster and unlock the bold ideas others are too rational to try.
Listen to the full episode of The Scaling CEO with Fran Brzyski for insights on innovation, intuition,and why the best founders always carry a bit of madness.
