The AI Workflow Behind Predictable Revenue Growth

🎤 Full Interview: Tzachi Davidovich, Co-founder & CEO @ FlyCode

Founder Story & Vision

Who they are & what they’re building

• Tzachi Davidovich is the Co-founder & CEO of FlyCode, a YC-backed fintech startup from Tel Aviv. With over a decade in fintech and subscription billing—and prior product leadership roles at Pioneer and Behaf—Tzachi set out to tackle a problem that quietly drains billions from SaaS and subscription businesses: failed payments. FlyCode’s AI-native platform predicts when and how to retry transactions, turning invisible churn into predictable recovered revenue.

Why now & what’s the big bet

• The subscription economy is booming, but failed payments cost companies $443 billion annually. Most founders accept this as an unavoidable cost, relying on Stripe’s default retries or sending friction-heavy “update your card” emails. Tzachi’s big bet: failed payments aren’t a billing nuisance—they’re a growth lever. With AI, companies can plug this silent leak and boost ARR by 5–8%, without customers even noticing.

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🧩 Real-World Use Cases

How it works in the wild

• Stripe + SaaS Integration: A B2B SaaS integrates FlyCode directly from the Stripe marketplace. When payments fail, FlyCode’s AI models determine the optimal retry window—recovering revenue automatically overnight.

• Shopify Subscription Stores: E-commerce brands with recurring billing layer FlyCode into their stack. Instead of losing subscribers after a random decline, payments are retried at the right time, reducing involuntary churn.

• Custom API Deployments: Larger companies with internal billing ops connect FlyCode via API, giving finance teams visibility into recovery rates and eliminating manual spreadsheet chases.

Outcomes: Higher recovery rates, reduced involuntary churn, and ARR uplift—all without customer friction.

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What you’ll learn:

• How Tzachi identified the “hair-on-fire” problem of failed payments by interviewing 100+ finance teams.

• Framework for building predictive retry models that outperform generic billing settings.

• Real tactics behind landing early customers through free payment audits.

• Lessons from YC on solving urgent problems and keeping teams lean.

• How FlyCode turns payment recovery into a strategic growth driver.

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Some Takeaways:

• Hair-on-fire problems are where startups win. Tzachi only doubled down once finance leaders admitted failed payments were keeping them up at night.

• AI isn’t just automation—it’s orchestration. FlyCode’s edge comes from predicting the right time to retry, not spamming retries.

• Lean + AI-native beats big teams. With fewer than 10 people, FlyCode builds faster and more effectively than competitors.

• CFOs are the real champions. Once they see a 5–8% ARR boost from invisible recovery, adoption becomes a no-brainer.

• Don’t start with features, start with fire. FlyCode didn’t even build a dashboard early on—just manual reports that proved value.

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In this episode, we cover:

00:01 – The $443B failed payment problem in the subscription economy

00:32 – Why failed payments hit your best customers hardest

02:08 – How FlyCode predicts the right retry timing

03:12 – Stripe marketplace integration and API workflows

05:49 – Understanding involuntary churn and lost LTV

07:59 – Discovering the problem by talking to 100+ finance teams

09:55 – Early customer acquisition through free payment audits

11:09 – Mapping hard vs. soft declines and designing the model

13:16 – Why CFOs love the ARR boost from recovered payments

16:11 – Why Stripe/Shopify don’t solve this deeply

22:22 – Lessons from YC: solving hair-on-fire problems

27:25 – Running lean with <10 people, powered by AI-native workflows

31:59 – Where AI stops and humans are still critical

34:39 – Scaling growth through customers, not fundraising

38:30 – Why empathy + business context remain irreplaceable in AI

41:21 – The importance of saying no as a founder

For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email david@thehomabase.ai

Referenced in the Episode:

• Stripe Marketplace – FlyCode integration for SaaS billing

• Shopify Subscriptions – Recovery for e-commerce recurring billing

• Y Combinator – Tzachi’s experience and mindset shifts

• Cursor & Claude Code – Tools FlyCode uses internally for AI development

Find Case Studies of all other episodes here.