Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
TBPN is a live tech talk show hosted by John Coogan and Jordi Hays, streaming weekdays from 11–2 PT on X and YouTube, with full episodes posted to Spotify immediately after airing.
Described by The New York Times as “Silicon Valley’s newest obsession,” TBPN has interviewed Mark Zuckerberg, Sam Altman, Mark Cuban, and Satya Nadella. Diet TBPN delivers the best moments from each episode in under 30 minutes.
We have some huge news. This is from the OpenAI blog. OpenAI Acquires TBPN, accelerating the global conversation about AI. This is not an April Fools joke. April Fools was yesterday.
Speaker 1:We didn't do anything for April Fools' Day. This is real. This is a very interesting deal. I think a lot of people will be interested in this. We're very excited about this.
Speaker 1:We have a bunch of context and information to share about how this changes things, what changes, what doesn't. I'm sure there's a million questions. We're trying we're gonna try and get to them all. But then we also have a huge normal show because
Speaker 2:Normal show. We got Mark Lohr.
Speaker 1:That's the first thing. It's not changing. TBPN's not going away. We're gonna be live every day, three hours, as long as we want. We have a lot of flexibility.
Speaker 1:We're going to do a lot of interesting things. If you are calling me right now, I can't pick up because I'm live. I think Yeah. You know
Speaker 2:might be time to turn off the phones.
Speaker 1:I think, yes, it might be time to turn off the phones.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Very, very strange. I think this is maybe the first time in history there's been a deal like this. And then two people that are a part of it have to go and talk for Yes. Three hours straight.
Speaker 2:But it's technology business as usual over here.
Speaker 1:We're very excited about the Artemis two mission going successfully. Hopefully, you all watched it. It was a lot of fun. We were watching it here on the the screen, and we were gripped as the rocket took off because
Speaker 2:Yeah. We were we were so locked in. We we were joking around that it should've it felt like it should've been a pay per view. Yeah. Like, could we turn space into a profit center for the government?
Speaker 1:Somebody was saying that it was not entertaining. I was extremely entertained. I don't know. Yeah. Maybe they could do more, but
Speaker 2:I NASA has a decent e commerce We business, were watching. They were selling like 10,000 patches a minute or something like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think we were doing the back of the envelope. Just from the main call to action at the bottom of the YouTube stream. They were selling a patch for, I don't know, tens of dollars, and they'd sold, like, hundreds of thousands of them. So as we were watching, they were selling, like, something like $10,000,000 worth of merch.
Speaker 1:So maybe go get some for yourself. Anyway, let's go over to Phiji Simo's post on the OpenAI blog. She shared this message with the company earlier today. She understanding, and proven ability to convene influential voices across tech, business, and culture.
Speaker 2:That's I'm still going to be hitting the soundboard.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah. Are. TBPN has built something pretty special. It's one of the places where the conversations about AI and builders is actually happening day to day.
Speaker 1:A lot of you already watch it and rely on it to stay close to what's going on. As I've been thinking about the future of how we communicate in OpenAI, one thing that's become clear is that the standard communications playbook just doesn't apply to us. We're not a typical company. We're driving a really big technological shift. And the mission of bringing and with the mission of bringing AGI to the world comes a responsibility to help create a space for real constructive conversation about the changes AI creates with builders and people using the technology at the center.
Speaker 1:And that's exactly what TBPN has built, which is what I was going say is the next line. That is a huge part of the show is making sense of what's going on, how these tools are actually being used, all of the implications. We've gone all over the place and we will continue to go all over the place. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And over the last over the last year, like, you know, multiple years, there's just been so there's so much uncertainty about AI. Yeah. I don't think we can change that. Yeah. But there's also a lot of fear Yeah.
Speaker 2:And just talking through it with the people that are actually helping diffuse AI through the economy across every single industry is something that we've enjoyed a tremendous amount and is exactly what we're gonna continue to do. Yeah. If you wanna continue.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So she says, so rather than trying to recreate that ourselves, it made a lot of sense just to bring them in, support what they're doing, and help them scale while keeping what makes them special. A core part of this is editorial independence. We can say whatever we want because we're live and we don't need to run anything through anyone.
Speaker 2:It's not possible.
Speaker 1:It would be very difficult to have somebody here. Can we say this? I'm about to say a sentence. TBPN will continue to run their programming, choose their own guests, and make their own editorial decisions. That's foundational to their credibility, and it's something we're explicitly protecting as part of this agreement.
Speaker 1:And also, we were never in the scoop industry. People were kind of asking, like, is this journalism? Is it commentary? I think we've always been like, hey, we like to talk to a lot of people, have a conversation, bring in people.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And even even when companies have approached us and said, we'll give you the exclusive. We don't Yeah.
Speaker 1:We'll say, give it to somebody else.
Speaker 2:It's like, hey, you can come on the show. We actually want you to go talk to the Journal Yeah. The Times or Bloomberg. Wherever Bloomberg, etcetera, wherever you want to go.
Speaker 1:And then come contextualize it with us and let us dig in and understand more about the strategy. And so TBPN will continue running their programming, choose their guests, and make their own editorial decisions. That's foundational to their credibility and something we're explicitly protecting as part of this agreement. I'm also excited to bring their amazing comms and marketing instincts to the team. We got lots of ideas, and we're very excited for this.
Speaker 1:They've helped many brands market online and because they have a strong pulse on where the industry is going, their comms and marketing ideas have really impressed you just seem to me. I can't wait to leverage their talent outside of the show to innovate on how we bring AI to the world in a way that helps people understand the full impact of this technology on their daily lives. TBPN will sit within our strategy organization reporting to Chris Lahain. Really excited to welcome Jordi, John, Dylan, and the broader team. And here's a statement from you.
Speaker 1:Do you wanna read this? What did you say?
Speaker 2:Over the past year, we've had a front row seat not just to OpenAI but to the entire ecosystem covering the daily news announcement and launches in real time. While we've been critical of the industry at times after getting to know Sam, Fiji, and the OpenAI team, what stood out the most was their openness to feedback and commitment to getting this right, moving from commentary to real impact and how this technology is distributed and understood globally is incredibly important to us.
Speaker 1:I contextualize it a little bit more shared. You know, a lot of people are like, is this an April Fool's joke? I've been saying expect the unexpected. This is a plot twist. I'll give you that.
Speaker 1:It was unexpected. It was unexpected to me, but I'm really happy about it. And when I reflect on my career, it's I think it makes a lot of sense, and I can walk you through some of my career and my experience with OpenAI and with Sam Altman. I've known Sam for maybe thirteen years. He invested in my first company in 2013, and then we got in a really serious logjam during a financing.
Speaker 1:And I wrote him an email. I told this story in Bloomberg a couple years ago. I wrote him an email and said like, Hey, this is getting really rough. I'm a first time founder. I don't know if we're going to be able to get this done.
Speaker 1:And he called me, and we hopped on the phone for like five minutes, and he was able to completely resolve everything, and everyone walked out of the deal feeling pretty good. And so that always left this impression on me that he was founder friendly. Obviously, he didn't in this particular case, it was to my benefit, not particularly to his benefit, the way the deal wound out. And he was just a great at a great addition to the to the negotiation and really And you were
Speaker 2:very young at the time. Yeah. I was just a wee lad. I was. You were about 23, 24, something in Yeah.
Speaker 2:That
Speaker 1:And then when I took my second company through YC, he was president at the time. And then when I joined Founders Fund, the very first deal that I saw in motion at Founders Fund was the post ChatGPT round in OpenAI in late twenty twenty two, early twenty twenty three. And so I sort of had this front row seat to all of this. And then once we actually started growing TBPN, he was one of first people that I texted to say, Hey, do you want to come on the show? And he was the first lab lead to come on the show.
Speaker 1:And we're excited to continue having him on the show, hopefully have other lab leads on the show, have other people from all over the industry. And just generally, I think that when I was at Founders Fund, I was not particularly in the weeds of intra venture capital fights. I was much more interested in the conversation around technological stagnation, not funding companies, not making great companies happen. I never was in a situation where I was like, Oh, if a different VC firm backs a great company, that's bad. And I think that's the same philosophy that I have always taken forward and will continue to believe in, which is that the American AI industry is the most important thing and that will continue to be the case.
Speaker 1:And I'm excited for all the different competition and everything that's happening in the industry to to continue and, yeah, push further. Jordy, did you have anything else to say?
Speaker 2:Said I just wanted to say Yeah. Some thank yous because a lot of people have been a part of this journey to It's been, I think, something like let me do the math here. Four hundred and ninety six days, roughly sixteen months since we put out the first episode. Yeah. It was just the two of us and Ben sitting in a room, couple cameras Yeah.
Speaker 2:Couple microphones. And I will just say, I didn't know this special of a business relationship was possible Yeah. Between you and me. Yeah. Like, I think, like, if you look back on that almost five hundred days, we've had disagreements around strategy or approaches or things like that.
Speaker 2:But we have, like, almost universally stayed perfectly aligned on everything that matters every single day Yeah. Every step of the way. Yeah. And I think that's somewhat of a miracle given that we went into this not really knowing what it would become and Yeah.
Speaker 1:We've done, like, one side project together, and it took, like, eight months. And it was, like, not it was like successful, but it was not like, oh, yeah. Like, okay. We were we were working together daily for months. Know?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It was a lot of just just jumping and leap of faith. Right?
Speaker 2:Yeah. And I think we've got this question so many times. Like, do you guys get sick of each other? Know, you just have to talk to each other for three hours a day? And like, I've said this before.
Speaker 2:I'll say it again. And it it is actually hilarious. The second that we leave the office, we're we both get in the car. We call each other. We end up talking for like another hour on the way home.
Speaker 2:And so it's just been it's been the the privilege of of a lifetime to just build this business with you and the whole team. Yeah. The team has been absolutely Keep it up for the team. Incredible. You guys are all truly amazing.
Speaker 2:And this very much is a this very much is a team, like a team sport. Like, business is a team sport, but this is like a live team sport. We come in here every single day. And the show doesn't happen if we don't all come in and and make it happen. And so the consistency of the team has been just incredible.
Speaker 2:And watching everyone's individual talents just flourish has been incredible. A lot of people came into this, you know, having done a thing or two in the past, but learning new things. Brandon has been absolutely incredible. Just an absolute rock in the organization. Brandon, if if you're not familiar, writes writes our newsletter every day and is just remarkably consistent and has like, you know, helped us shape our editorial approach.
Speaker 2:And it's been incredible. Dylan, who joined us, I guess, technically q four of last year. You know, I'd worked with him at my last company but is truly, truly one of a kind, remarkable. I never wanna do business without him. And he has just done such an exceptional job working off air.
Speaker 2:It's challenging when you're building a company and you're also having to put on a live performance
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:For three hours every day.
Speaker 1:And he wrote the newsletter yesterday. So That's true. Op ed. He wrote the op ed.
Speaker 2:Ben Ben, who's been here since since
Speaker 1:Since before TBPN, he was working with me on my YouTube channel. When did we start working
Speaker 3:I was here before Geordie.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Maybe like mid twenty twenty four maybe, something like that.
Speaker 3:That sounds right.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Found some videos.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah. We traveled a lot. A lot of it's
Speaker 2:been absolutely incredible to watch you grow from from an extremely talented individual into a very capable and talented manager and and building out a team of people that are so hard working and wonderful. And, you know, Michael, Scott, Jackson, you guys, you know, are so, you know, such a joy to to work with even though what we do is is not easy and it's changing Mhmm. You know, day to day. Yeah. To all the guests, seriously, it's been it's been so much fun.
Speaker 2:Like, if you went back and rewind to the beginning of of the show to to we we started with no guests. We did something like 50 episodes without any guests. We thought that there was a time that we thought we would just do that forever because that was the only thing that was really unique about the show.
Speaker 1:Like, that's the reason I started creating content in 2020. Because it was during COVID, there were no events, there were no places to meet other founders, meet other business people. I wasn't thinking of it as like a media business. I was thinking of it as like a way to just have conversations and meet other people who are building companies. And now we get to do that all day long, which is just a dream come true.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So so many so many guests have turned into to dear friends.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know, the the Joe Weisenthals Yeah. The the Dylan Patel's. Yeah. The there's there's really too many to list, but we will have you all back on the show. So I can't wait.
Speaker 2:To everybody that's tuned in, whether you've watched, you know, the RSS feed
Speaker 1:Yeah. Single show.
Speaker 2:The live show, the clips, the newsletter We're laughing you hard. Know, we've strived to to create the right product regardless of how much time you have. If you have two minutes a day to read the newsletter, great. If you've got five minutes to watch some clips, if you wanna watch the entire podcast, if you wanna watch Diet TBPN, The Daily Cut Down, thank you. Thank you for tuning in.
Speaker 2:And fortunately, pretty much everything is gonna stay exactly the same. Tyler. Our one and only Tyler. Tyler, you are truly truly incredible. One of the brightest young people I've ever worked with.
Speaker 2:And you have such a bright future. We always always we always knew that I I I've felt from the very beginning that you would go on to start your own company and we cherish every single minute that we have with you. And we're gonna do our very best to retain you for for decades. But thank you for everything you've brought to the show, everything you've built. Tyler, if if you're just tuning in now, has built all of the internal software that we we use to run the show.
Speaker 2:It's insane stuff. It is a, you know, fully Yeah. Custom, you know, content management system Yeah. CRM. It helps us edit all of our videos.
Speaker 2:Yep. It is the backbone of the show. It's a it's a tool that the entire team uses on a daily basis and truly the show would not be possible without it. Yep. And yeah, your your contribution's on air as well.
Speaker 2:It's It's amazing. It's so much fun to be able to cut cut over to you. Mhmm. And so it is with great honor that I give you this soundboard. Good job.
Speaker 2:And our sponsors. Yeah. We can start with with the ramp team, Eric Eric Kareem Yeah. And the whole the whole team over there has just been incredible. They allowed us, you know, at the at the beginning I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:The 2024 when we had started doing the show, we really loved it. Mhmm. They were they committed to sponsoring the show for a year and that allowed us to do to do so much in terms of investing in all in all the equipment that we use, hiring people. They they made it possible and have been truly truly exceptional partners. And and, you know, watching Ramps growth over the last Yeah.
Speaker 2:Over the last couple years has just been phenomenal, and they deserve all the all the success. And every other sponsor that has that has been a part of this.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Truly. Shout out Nick as well.
Speaker 1:Oh, did he not get one?
Speaker 2:Oh, gotta get a direct shout out for Nick.
Speaker 1:We gotta get a direct shout out for Nick.
Speaker 2:We don't know we don't know what to call Nick. He's a
Speaker 1:We can't give his name on air because he'll get 10 times more emails. He he the the lineup every day is is crafted by Nick. He is our liaison to 99% of the guests that come on the show. Sometimes it starts with an interaction over x or a text message or there's other intermediaries involved. There's a lot that goes into actually getting someone into the waiting room, into the show, making sure that they understand how the show will work.
Speaker 1:It's sort of like you're hot dropping into this live show. That's new for a lot of people. And Nick does a great job communicating and parsing all the noise to understand what the best news of the day is, how we can contextualize it best with the optimal guess. And he's done a fantastic job and we'll continue. Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's an honor. It's an honor. David Senra. Yeah. One of a kind.
Speaker 1:You literally
Speaker 2:inspired us. Yeah. David was our very first listener that I'm aware of. Yeah. He gets sent a lot of
Speaker 1:We sent him a link in a Google Drive.
Speaker 2:And he listened and from that first episode, even though it was very scrappy, he said, take this take this, you know, a 100 times more seriously
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Than than you than you are right now. And we did and it's it's the best advice that I've ever gotten and he has been
Speaker 1:And we have a picture of
Speaker 2:him. We have a picture of him here.
Speaker 3:We couldn't print it full size. And it appears that it
Speaker 1:was printed on a black and white photo printer. But it's a black and white photo and he's a black and white brand. So thank you to David Senra who's been the podcast godfather, truly.
Speaker 2:And the gong. But you have
Speaker 1:the gong. The chat is asking us to hit the gong. We have to we have to rush lodge. The Gong will remain. The Gong will remain.
Speaker 1:Will Menidas has already chimed in with his take. He says, many guy many people are saying we're in the deal guy Yuga many are saying. And it means a lot that Will Menard is the only he is the only guest who has co hosted a full show from start to finish with us. And if you want to go back in the archives, you can watch that episode. It's a wild one.
Speaker 1:It was in a hotel room. We had yet to figure out the remote shows fully. The team worked really hard to make that one happen.
Speaker 2:Very chaotic.
Speaker 1:Was a good time. Very chaotic. Is there anything else to say about OpenAI? Mean, course, we'll be in conversation with you forever. Any time on the show, you're welcome to leave a comment or chat in the chat is asking, where is Will Menaitus right now?
Speaker 1:I don't know. Probably sailing a boat. I don't know.
Speaker 2:Yeah. New York. And, yeah, it's it's an it's an honor Yeah. To to partner with OpenAI. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Every single person on the team that we've had the pleasure of meeting, we've been impressed by. They are ridiculously talented and Yeah. Every single person is committed to getting getting this AI thing right. So Yeah. We're very excited.
Speaker 2:We're incredibly excited.
Speaker 1:Great. Well, let's move on to the Artemis two pictures and images and news. Very, very exciting. It made the front of The Wall Street Journal. NASA aims to orbit moon for first for first time since '72 to boldly go the crew of
Speaker 2:NASA is asking, is that three Diet Cokes? Yes. I got four. Gotta thank you gotta thank Diet Coke.
Speaker 1:Thank you to the Coca Cola Corporation Corporation for making this possible.
Speaker 2:Thank you to the the Huberman team
Speaker 1:The Matayana.
Speaker 2:For the Matayana, Yerba Mate's, the podcast in a can. Yes. Wouldn't be possible without you guys.
Speaker 1:And thank you to tailors and suit makers. There there's a lot of people that make this possible. The horse, the prop department. There's a million things here. It's been a it's been a great time.
Speaker 1:So the crew of NASA Artemis two head to Cape Canaveral launch pad Wednesday for the first human spaceflight to the moon in half a century. John Krauss posted a incredible photo. Is he is he someone who actually yeah. He he he Special comms assistant. Special comms assistant.
Speaker 1:He actually goes to the launches and brings special photography gear to get the best possible photos. And man, he did he deliver with this one. What an incredible moment. We talked about it a little bit. There's an article on the watches Oh, gosh.
Speaker 1:NASA Artemis too.
Speaker 2:John, we have to thank our lovely wives.
Speaker 1:Of course.
Speaker 2:How could we not?
Speaker 1:Our families. Did you get a text?
Speaker 2:Maybe. We we don't talk about them a lot on the show. Yes. This is a show about technology and business, but they have been they are the back they are the the truly the backbones of the show and have put up with
Speaker 1:A lot
Speaker 2:of nights, lot of phone calls. Hours. Mornings. Yeah. Lot of early mornings.
Speaker 2:I think out of the last out of every single day that we've done the show, I haven't I've I've left the house past 6AM, maybe twice. Right? It's been it's been a long it's been a long road. And and the good news, ladies, is it's nothing's gonna change. No.
Speaker 2:Thank you to both of you for supporting us and allowing us to to do what we do.
Speaker 1:Can we pull up this picture, Ben, of the in the production chat of the first episode that we recorded in the Jonathan Club in downtown showing a
Speaker 3:little bit Yeah. Put it up earlier.
Speaker 1:Oh, you did? Yeah. Behind the scenes. Is yeah. Such a such a wild time.
Speaker 3:Remember that?
Speaker 2:Yeah. Remember that, Jordy? Suitless. Suitless. We had the flag.
Speaker 2:Yeah. But no suits.
Speaker 1:It looked it looked it looked pretty good on camera. I was I was happy with the way it came out. But yesterday, the long awaited Artemis two mission took to the stars en route to the moon for the first such manned mission since 1972. It's memories.
Speaker 2:The chat asked for a flashbang.
Speaker 1:Flash out. Okay. That's good. Yes. The flashbang has been a highlight for sure.
Speaker 1:Both literally Yeah.
Speaker 2:The sound the sound board. It's truly it's truly a character on the show.
Speaker 1:And I have some too now. Its members all had Omega Speedmaster x 33 models strapped to their flight suits. Danny Milton just wrote a full article on the site now detailing the watches worn on the wrists of the four astronauts throughout their time as part of this mission. Watches have a long standing history with spaceflight, most notably through the Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch. But there are countless others that have cemented their place in the cosmos.
Speaker 2:So we can pull up this video now of the astronauts working on what looks like some type of tablet. So here he is typing in
Speaker 1:Most secure password known to man. What is that? 9393 or something? 3939.
Speaker 2:3939.
Speaker 1:9393.
Speaker 2:Powerful. Powerful.
Speaker 1:We're going back to the moon. Apparently, that video we played yesterday was a little bit of fake news. The the the young man, the adolescent who swears and says, we're going to the f and moon. He was he the the real line, I believe, in the community note is that he says, we're going to the freaking Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And and it had been altered to add the actual f word. But Oh, interesting. The but the the sentiment is still the same. Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's very exciting, very inspirational.
Speaker 2:Jared Isaacman on launch day says, oh, this kid is definitely getting a bag of NASA gear.
Speaker 1:That's
Speaker 2:great. Very cool.
Speaker 1:There is some there are some wrinkles with the launch. Right? Fortunately, nothing like disastrous or catastrophic or anything. But the good news is that we're on our way back to the moon. The bad news is that the toilet's broken apparently.
Speaker 1:And I believe this is from the live blog from the New York Times. The NASA associate minister said there is a controller issue with a toilet on the Orion capsule and it would take a few hours to troubleshoot. We're just getting started, he said, when addressing that and some other glitches with the space spacecraft. The spirit of Apollo 10 lives on. They said one thirty five.
Speaker 1:They told us that. Here's another it seems like this is not the first time that this has happened, but we're hoping for the best here.
Speaker 2:Sounds like there were some other issues with Outlook as well. Mhmm. We can pull up this video from Tom Warren.
Speaker 4:Can remote in and take a look directly.
Speaker 5:Yeah. Go for it.
Speaker 4:And then I also see that
Speaker 5:I have two Microsoft Outlooks, and neither one of those are working.
Speaker 1:If you wanna remote in and check. Two. Why do you have two? Like web and desktop? Or you think it's like two separate desktop Join
Speaker 4:in on your PCB and we'll let you know when we're done.
Speaker 2:Honestly, this is the best possible failure scenario is Outlook Yeah. And not the rocket itself. So Can
Speaker 1:can they
Speaker 2:I think it's a good outcome. Were so many amazing images coming out Yeah. Yesterday. Yeah. Peyton Alexander says, this is the real reward for Artemis.
Speaker 2:This is who we are actually doing this for. They will grow up knowing they can one day work in their country's bases on the moon and Mars. We are not just abstractly hoping for a better world for them. We are going there. And two kids here watching the launch from Orlando.
Speaker 2:Just beautiful.
Speaker 1:Yeah. My five year old said it was boring, which is not what you want to hear. But we'll have to give some more context to him about how big
Speaker 3:of a deal it is. He was like, yeah. I don't know. Maybe maybe
Speaker 1:maybe he wants more more flashing lights on the screen.
Speaker 2:We were we were we were driving Yeah. For the actual launch Yeah. And it was so funny listening to the audio feed and sitting in traffic and just looking out at everyone. Yeah. And and realizing that it felt like the majority of the world still wasn't paying attention or or didn't care.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I mean, like rockets do launch like every day now.
Speaker 2:I know. SpaceX has normalized it to such a degree.
Speaker 1:Isn't there isn't there some sort of subplot on the Apollo missions that by the by the third or fourth Apollo mission, there was no like the the actual viewership had dropped off and like the American population had gotten to 3.6
Speaker 2:says put subway surfers on it. Yeah. On the NASA feed.
Speaker 1:Crazy that you actually need to maybe need to do this. How AI helped one man and his brother build a 1,800,000,000 company. Who needs more than two employees that when artificial intelligence can do so many corporate tasks, it's super efficient and a little bit lonely. So Aaron Griffith tells the story of Matthew Gallagher, who took just two months, dollars 20,000, and more than a dozen artificial intelligence tools to get his startup off the ground. From his house in Los Angeles, Mr.
Speaker 1:Gallagher, 41, used AI to write the code for the software that powers his company, produced the website copy, generated the images and videos for ads and handled customer service. He created AI systems to analyze his business' performance and he outsourced the other stuff he couldn't do himself. His startup MedVee, a telehealth provider of GLP one weight loss drugs, got 300 customers in its first month. In its second month, he gained more than 1,000 more. In 2025, MedVee's first year in business, the company generated Full year.
Speaker 1:Four or the first full year in business. The company generated $401,000,000 in sales. Mister Gallagher then hired
Speaker 2:This is this is absolutely insane because I as GLP ones were starting to take off Yep. I had I I remember distinctly talking with somebody that was like, I wanna start a telehealth company for GLP ones. Yep. And at that time, I was like, okay, there's a lot of telehealth companies that are at scale. Yep.
Speaker 2:They're all gonna be very They're well aware of this. Yeah. They will immediately introduce this product and other, you know, similar products to their customer base and it's gonna be incredibly difficult to be Yeah. To be competitive. And it turns out there's just such overwhelming demand for these products
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That you could come in as a new company and scale.
Speaker 1:Like, one year in maybe, he hires his only employee, his younger brother, Elliot. This year, they're on track to do $1,800,000,000 in sales. A $1,800,000,000 company with just two employees in the age of AI. It's increasingly possible, says Aaron Griffith in the New York Times. Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI, predicted the rise of a new breed of super efficient company in 2024.
Speaker 1:A one person business worth $1,000,000,000 would have been unimaginable without AI, he said on a podcast, and now it will happen. Now as AI tools spread, entrepreneurs are harnessing the technology to expand their startups to an enormous scale at breathtaking speed with very few humans. Big companies, especially in tech, are getting in on the disruption too. Pinterest, Block, and others have cut thousands of workers in recent months, citing efficiencies enabled by AI.
Speaker 2:Does this count yet though? Like, I feel like to be the one person, $1,000,000,000 company, you gotta be able to log in to payroll tool
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:And you're the only person there.
Speaker 1:Oh, so it is.
Speaker 2:And he's got his brother in there.
Speaker 1:Sorry, bro. Take a walk.
Speaker 2:The startup which has not raised outside funding also has no official valuation but many highly valued tech companies can only dream of hitting 1,000,000,000 in revenue with so few workers. Yeah. Medvia is also profitable. That is great and important if you're bootstrapped. Can't Yeah.
Speaker 2:Can't can't
Speaker 1:get Is very this a wrapper company? It's a it's like a GLP one wrapper. But it's AI enabled, but it's not wrapping the AI foundation model. It's like using the tool to wrap another industry and just create the efficiency between the manufacturer and the actual distribution. It really is remarkable that they were able to hoover up so much revenue in such a competitive space because you assume that the other telehealth providers would have significant ad operations and that the margins on customer acquisition would be very, very tricky to crack.
Speaker 1:But he must have found some unique insight into how to distribute the product, get actual people to the website because the AI certainly can build the website and write the copy, but it can't necessarily get people to show up and actually put down their hard earned cash for the product.
Speaker 2:Jordy, what else can texted
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:My dad Yes. News. He says, congratulations. That's so exciting. Thanks for letting me know.
Speaker 2:Talk to you soon. Have a great day. Thank you. Thank you,
Speaker 1:dad. Oh, it's amazing. Well, if you've texted me or you've called me in the last three hours, there's a good chance that I might respond to you in the next couple hours. Leave us five stars in Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Subscribe to our newsletter, tbpn.com.
Speaker 1:Everything is the same. We will see you on Monday.
Speaker 2:That's fun.
Speaker 1:11AM. Next week,
Speaker 2:five shows, fifteen hours. Let's be honest. It'll probably be more like seventeen or eighteen or nineteen. We'll see.
Speaker 1:Who knows? The world is And our thank you for being with us along the journey. We appreciate it.
Speaker 2:Let's get one more gong hit, John.
Speaker 1:One more gong hit.
Speaker 2:It's been an honor.
Speaker 1:Goodbye, everyone. See you soon. We'll see
Speaker 2:you tomorrow.