What happens when you lose almost everything and decide to build again?

In this powerful conversation, Amer Ahmad and Chris Anzalone, co-founders of NextLM, share a remarkable story of friendship, failure, redemption, and reinvention.

Amer’s journey has taken him from serving as Comptroller of Chicago and CFO of the Ohio State Treasury to spending a decade in federal prison following a public corruption conviction. But prison ultimately became not the end of his story, but one of the chapters that shaped who he would become.

Today, Amer and Chris are building NextLM, an AI-driven sales intelligence company backed by venture capital and working with major technology partners including Google and NVIDIA. Their story raises bigger questions about what it takes to rebuild a life, earn trust again, and create something meaningful after your past has become part of your public identity.

They talk candidly about the “paddles” that carried them through their darkest years, accountability, honesty, and the relationships that refused to disappear when there was nothing to gain. They also explore the extraordinary friendship that began in prison and eventually became the foundation for a technology company.

This is a conversation about more than AI or entrepreneurship. It’s about second chances, taking responsibility, the power of loyalty, and the possibility that your worst chapter does not have to be your final one.

For anyone who has ever made a serious mistake, lost everything, or wondered whether it’s possible to start over, this conversation offers a powerful message: your past may shape your story, but it doesn’t have to determine your future.