{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"The Next New Thing","title":"How Josh Mohrer built Wave AI","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":3350,"description":"Presented by Zapierhttps://zapier.com/Episode Highlights / Timestamps00:00 $7M ARR as a solo founder01:21 Profit, margins, and team size02:51 Josh’s path from Uber to Wave05:24 Choosing ideas in the early AI days06:18 Why summarization felt like the killer app08:15 Competing with Otter, Fireflies, and others10:21 Recording real-world audio vs meeting bots12:18 Spending more on AI to improve quality13:39 Knowing you’re onto something from user emotion15:09 Why Wave stayed general instead of vertical16:12 Learning to build with ChatGPT18:00 How Wave’s architecture evolved19:39 Using Claude Code day-to-day21:00 AI agents analyzing analytics and logs25:21 The tools behind Wave (Cursor, Twilio, Adapt)27:27 Building instead of buying SaaS tools30:00 Using AI to ship features faster32:06 Why Zapier matters for data portability34:03 The future of cheap, abundant software36:09 Running Wave like a corner store, not a startup40:12 Growth goals without VC pressure42:18 How Wave gets customers today49:03 Why SEO side projects didn’t convert50:24 “If you’re good, things might work out”54:45 Revenue breakdown and take-home profitWhat does it look like when a single founder builds a profitable AI company — alone — and quietly grows it to millions in revenue?In this episode of The Next New Thing, Andrew Warner sits down with Josh Mohrer, creator of Wave AI, to unpack how he built a $7M ARR AI business with no full-time team — and how modern AI tools fundamentally changed what’s possible for solo founders.Josh previously helped scale Uber in its early days, but Wave AI is a very different story. It’s a one-person, profitable SaaS built around a deceptively simple idea: record real-world conversations, transcribe them, and generate high-quality summaries people actually trust. No hype. No venture capital. No big team.","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/NyHHieTlmHDUHZCr0-GqsmgcxwwW_QdWcFQKUIrpKnI/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9mZGY1/YWFlNGYzMTA0ZWY1/ZmRlNGY0NDIxMjA0/ZDQyYy5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}