1 00:00:00,210 --> 00:00:02,250 Welcome back to the episode of the Startup Therapy Podcast. 2 00:00:02,250 --> 00:00:04,290 This is Ryan Rutan joint, as always by my 3 00:00:04,290 --> 00:00:07,320 friend, the founder, and CEO of startups.com. 4 00:00:07,320 --> 00:00:12,120 Will Schroeder, will AI is now writing our copy, 5 00:00:12,120 --> 00:00:15,990 debugging our code, AB testing our pricing while we sleep, 6 00:00:16,050 --> 00:00:16,861 to the extent that we do. 7 00:00:18,045 --> 00:00:21,345 So the existential questions getting pretty loud and clear. 8 00:00:21,345 --> 00:00:25,695 If the smartest person in the room now costs 49 bucks a 9 00:00:25,695 --> 00:00:26,955 month, what's left for founders? 10 00:00:27,375 --> 00:00:30,375 So I think, man, it'd be fun today to break down like what 11 00:00:30,375 --> 00:00:32,985 parts of us get automated and which parts become 12 00:00:32,985 --> 00:00:33,705 more valuable than ever. 13 00:00:33,915 --> 00:00:34,065 The 14 00:00:34,065 --> 00:00:35,685 question a lot of people are saying is, can 15 00:00:35,685 --> 00:00:36,855 AI replace a founder? 16 00:00:37,215 --> 00:00:37,515 Yeah. 17 00:00:37,515 --> 00:00:40,155 And, and I, I'm gonna be heretical when I say this. 18 00:00:40,485 --> 00:00:41,025 Yes. 19 00:00:41,580 --> 00:00:44,010 Now I say that as a founder, as somebody who does not 20 00:00:44,010 --> 00:00:45,120 want to be replaced, right? 21 00:00:45,120 --> 00:00:45,180 Yeah. 22 00:00:45,180 --> 00:00:47,520 So I wanna be clearly, I, I have a strong bias to say, 23 00:00:47,520 --> 00:00:50,460 no, this is where we fight back against Skynet will. 24 00:00:51,480 --> 00:00:52,950 It kind of is, we know how this goes. 25 00:00:52,950 --> 00:00:53,880 It doesn't end well for us. 26 00:00:54,180 --> 00:00:56,340 Although we do get a a, a cool Austrian sent 27 00:00:56,340 --> 00:00:57,210 back to it to help us. 28 00:00:57,210 --> 00:00:57,870 You sure do. 29 00:00:58,110 --> 00:00:59,670 So here, here's what I would say. 30 00:00:59,700 --> 00:01:03,390 When I say yes, I don't mean, uh, universally all of us, 31 00:01:03,540 --> 00:01:04,379 I'm saying Yeah, yeah, yeah. 32 00:01:04,440 --> 00:01:07,740 A lot of, I think what historically I considered 33 00:01:07,740 --> 00:01:09,000 my founder traits. 34 00:01:09,530 --> 00:01:11,539 Um, my ability to work really hard on all these 35 00:01:11,539 --> 00:01:14,179 different things, those things just aren't hard anymore. 36 00:01:14,630 --> 00:01:14,870 Right. 37 00:01:14,870 --> 00:01:15,770 Like, I'll give you an example. 38 00:01:16,399 --> 00:01:18,229 I've prided myself for a very long time on 39 00:01:18,229 --> 00:01:19,250 being a strong writer. 40 00:01:19,370 --> 00:01:21,830 You've seen me write unlimited amounts of copy, right? 41 00:01:21,830 --> 00:01:21,979 Yep. 42 00:01:22,340 --> 00:01:25,400 And it was like we could just take any topic, uh, whether 43 00:01:25,400 --> 00:01:28,070 it's landing page copy, or educational copy, or your 44 00:01:28,070 --> 00:01:29,990 newsletters, and you're like, we'll, write something. 45 00:01:30,110 --> 00:01:31,910 And I would just, right? 46 00:01:31,970 --> 00:01:32,300 Yep. 47 00:01:32,509 --> 00:01:34,910 And, and like I said in, and my writing was decent 48 00:01:34,910 --> 00:01:35,660 and it was passable. 49 00:01:35,690 --> 00:01:35,870 Yeah. 50 00:01:36,080 --> 00:01:36,679 But now. 51 00:01:37,949 --> 00:01:40,890 AI can write as well, if not better than I can. 52 00:01:41,130 --> 00:01:44,280 And it's almost like that skill. 53 00:01:44,339 --> 00:01:44,580 Okay. 54 00:01:44,580 --> 00:01:47,220 This is just one example kind of went away. 55 00:01:47,610 --> 00:01:51,300 Now the, the importance of having something to say 56 00:01:51,570 --> 00:01:52,589 has not gone away here. 57 00:01:52,589 --> 00:01:53,220 Right, right. 58 00:01:53,250 --> 00:01:54,445 What you're trying, trying to say part very much 59 00:01:54,445 --> 00:01:54,565 I. 60 00:01:55,130 --> 00:01:58,789 But your ability to convey that in words is no longer a 61 00:01:58,789 --> 00:02:01,640 unique skill that some people have and some people don't. 62 00:02:01,640 --> 00:02:03,170 Some people, of course, are gonna be better at it, 63 00:02:03,350 --> 00:02:06,230 but no, if, if chat GBT can crank out 50 landing 64 00:02:06,230 --> 00:02:09,410 page variants before lunch, then we can't treat the 65 00:02:09,410 --> 00:02:12,950 copywriting piece as the founder superpower, right? 66 00:02:12,950 --> 00:02:15,740 Knowing what to say, important. 67 00:02:16,500 --> 00:02:17,640 Saying it less. 68 00:02:17,640 --> 00:02:19,680 So I wanna dig into that just a little bit more. 69 00:02:19,890 --> 00:02:21,870 'cause I, this is just so fascinating to me that this 70 00:02:21,870 --> 00:02:24,270 whole, this whole era right now is so fascinating to me. 71 00:02:24,870 --> 00:02:29,460 Right now we're at a point where AI, and, and I, I would 72 00:02:29,460 --> 00:02:32,700 argue, I always use the, the corollary to, uh, gaming 73 00:02:32,700 --> 00:02:34,380 machines from Atari 2,600 Yeah. 74 00:02:34,380 --> 00:02:36,090 To like, you know, uh, current Xbox, so to speak. 75 00:02:36,300 --> 00:02:39,660 And I, and I would say AI is still in roughly somewhere 76 00:02:39,660 --> 00:02:43,140 between the Atari 2,600 and the in television stage, right. 77 00:02:43,140 --> 00:02:45,540 Just like the Right, the very early stages. 78 00:02:46,065 --> 00:02:48,195 And at the time people never see it that way. 79 00:02:48,345 --> 00:02:50,625 Like, like when you had your Atari 2,600, you thought it 80 00:02:50,625 --> 00:02:53,265 was the most amazing gaming system that it e ever existed. 81 00:02:53,265 --> 00:02:54,440 Well, it was because it was right. 82 00:02:54,600 --> 00:02:56,880 'cause right before that I had pong, and right before 83 00:02:56,880 --> 00:02:59,445 that I had just tic-tac toe on a piece of paper. 84 00:02:59,535 --> 00:03:00,225 You bet, you bet. 85 00:03:00,225 --> 00:03:03,524 So I say this to say there are many, many, um, 86 00:03:03,524 --> 00:03:06,015 iterations that are coming, but even in the current 87 00:03:06,015 --> 00:03:07,815 iteration, at the most basic. 88 00:03:08,100 --> 00:03:12,240 What AI can do now, it makes a lot of the stuff we were 89 00:03:12,240 --> 00:03:14,040 spending so much time doing. 90 00:03:14,310 --> 00:03:16,800 Kind of irrelevant or at worse. 91 00:03:16,950 --> 00:03:17,100 Yeah, man. 92 00:03:17,130 --> 00:03:17,850 Duplicative. 93 00:03:18,025 --> 00:03:18,315 Yeah. 94 00:03:18,320 --> 00:03:18,540 Yeah. 95 00:03:18,720 --> 00:03:22,230 Anything that's repeatable, data-driven, pattern based. 96 00:03:22,590 --> 00:03:24,959 To me, man, that's already AI turf. 97 00:03:25,140 --> 00:03:25,380 Right. 98 00:03:25,380 --> 00:03:27,510 And as you said, we're just at the beginning stages. 99 00:03:27,660 --> 00:03:27,929 And 100 00:03:27,959 --> 00:03:28,890 here's another way to look at it. 101 00:03:28,890 --> 00:03:30,720 I used to run a large ad agency, right? 102 00:03:30,725 --> 00:03:30,745 Yeah. 103 00:03:30,750 --> 00:03:33,630 And we had hundreds and hundreds of people, uh, copywriters 104 00:03:33,630 --> 00:03:34,440 and creative directors. 105 00:03:34,440 --> 00:03:34,500 Yeah. 106 00:03:34,500 --> 00:03:35,700 You know, and all these folks, right. 107 00:03:36,180 --> 00:03:38,730 And the copywriters, for example, of which I had 108 00:03:38,730 --> 00:03:41,160 a, a strong affinity for, would be able to sit in a 109 00:03:41,160 --> 00:03:43,530 room and we'd be working on a campaign, and they'd come 110 00:03:43,530 --> 00:03:46,620 up with dozens and dozens of different ideas and approaches. 111 00:03:46,890 --> 00:03:49,920 Right now, within that contingent of copywriters. 112 00:03:50,205 --> 00:03:51,645 Like anything else, like athletes or 113 00:03:51,645 --> 00:03:52,455 anything else like that? 114 00:03:52,665 --> 00:03:54,045 There were a few that were exceptional. 115 00:03:54,465 --> 00:03:55,635 Let's say the A players. 116 00:03:55,995 --> 00:03:56,175 Yep. 117 00:03:56,205 --> 00:03:59,265 And there were a handful that were B players and a lot of 118 00:03:59,265 --> 00:04:00,405 people that were C players. 119 00:04:00,555 --> 00:04:00,705 Okay. 120 00:04:00,705 --> 00:04:00,706 Yeah. 121 00:04:01,500 --> 00:04:06,720 Now what I would argue is most AI can perform about 122 00:04:06,720 --> 00:04:09,780 as well as the B players and most certainly the C players. 123 00:04:10,020 --> 00:04:10,560 Yes. 124 00:04:10,620 --> 00:04:11,010 Yeah, I agree. 125 00:04:11,220 --> 00:04:12,690 Are they replicating the A players? 126 00:04:12,690 --> 00:04:12,990 No. 127 00:04:12,990 --> 00:04:14,400 And they, they may never. 128 00:04:14,490 --> 00:04:15,450 May never. 129 00:04:15,570 --> 00:04:15,990 Okay. 130 00:04:16,290 --> 00:04:17,640 However, that's here nor there. 131 00:04:17,700 --> 00:04:21,660 The point is, if I can now have copywriting and and idea 132 00:04:21,660 --> 00:04:24,245 generation done at a B level. 133 00:04:24,575 --> 00:04:27,575 Yeah, for $0 for $49 a month, right? 134 00:04:27,724 --> 00:04:27,995 Yep. 135 00:04:28,055 --> 00:04:28,985 Why wouldn't I 136 00:04:28,985 --> 00:04:29,645 be doing that? 137 00:04:29,765 --> 00:04:30,305 Exactly. 138 00:04:30,305 --> 00:04:30,545 No. 139 00:04:30,545 --> 00:04:32,825 The accelerative power, that is insanity. 140 00:04:32,974 --> 00:04:33,215 Right? 141 00:04:33,215 --> 00:04:34,745 And this is, this is what we should all want, right? 142 00:04:34,745 --> 00:04:35,615 This is what we all want. 143 00:04:35,615 --> 00:04:35,765 Correct. 144 00:04:35,765 --> 00:04:36,604 We've always wanted this. 145 00:04:36,604 --> 00:04:39,155 We're like, how could I just get them to produce way more? 146 00:04:39,155 --> 00:04:39,365 Right? 147 00:04:39,485 --> 00:04:40,925 I can only afford one person. 148 00:04:41,105 --> 00:04:42,365 How can I turn them into 10? 149 00:04:42,750 --> 00:04:43,469 Here's your answer. 150 00:04:43,590 --> 00:04:44,039 And again, 151 00:04:44,039 --> 00:04:47,969 we're focusing this episode inward to say, and what if I 152 00:04:47,969 --> 00:04:49,380 wanna be the force multiplier? 153 00:04:49,680 --> 00:04:52,170 Here's a, a great way for me to, to, to show the difference. 154 00:04:52,620 --> 00:04:55,080 Uh, a few years ago when I was writing copy for something, 155 00:04:55,380 --> 00:04:58,289 I kind of knew what my rate of output would be, and I 156 00:04:58,289 --> 00:05:00,690 knew that, let's say I'm just making this up on, in 157 00:05:00,690 --> 00:05:03,930 any one day, I could create, uh, you know, a five page 158 00:05:03,930 --> 00:05:06,210 document, just, you know, using it as a unit of measure. 159 00:05:06,240 --> 00:05:10,500 Okay, well now in a day I can create 10, five page documents. 160 00:05:10,800 --> 00:05:11,220 Yes. 161 00:05:11,460 --> 00:05:11,790 Right. 162 00:05:12,060 --> 00:05:15,690 So because the AI can basically take the ideas from my head 163 00:05:15,690 --> 00:05:19,020 and just put all the words that was like me manually lay 164 00:05:19,050 --> 00:05:20,790 laying bricks before, right? 165 00:05:20,880 --> 00:05:21,420 Yeah, exactly. 166 00:05:21,480 --> 00:05:23,370 And I just don't have to do that. 167 00:05:23,790 --> 00:05:23,970 No. 168 00:05:24,720 --> 00:05:28,260 So part of me would say, man, that felt very special to me. 169 00:05:28,605 --> 00:05:30,975 You know, I felt very unique that I had that capability. 170 00:05:31,335 --> 00:05:34,695 Uh, and, and, and that's been quote taken away from me, 171 00:05:35,085 --> 00:05:38,085 but there's another side to say, but was that really was 172 00:05:38,085 --> 00:05:41,835 my ability to, to, to write words and compose the value? 173 00:05:42,045 --> 00:05:44,475 Or was it the idea behind those words? 174 00:05:44,625 --> 00:05:45,916 Yeah, I mean that was the thought. 175 00:05:45,921 --> 00:05:46,995 The always was the idea. 176 00:05:47,025 --> 00:05:49,275 We just didn't have another way of manifesting 177 00:05:49,275 --> 00:05:50,115 the idea in the past. 178 00:05:50,115 --> 00:05:50,325 Right. 179 00:05:50,415 --> 00:05:51,705 There was have idea. 180 00:05:51,795 --> 00:05:52,755 Now put it to paper. 181 00:05:52,815 --> 00:05:52,905 Right. 182 00:05:52,905 --> 00:05:55,725 We just don't have to do all of the manual work for that. 183 00:05:56,325 --> 00:05:56,775 It's funny, man. 184 00:05:56,775 --> 00:05:59,835 I had this realization the other day that there are tasks 185 00:05:59,835 --> 00:06:03,105 that I think once were like the signals of my genius, that 186 00:06:03,105 --> 00:06:06,765 now would just be a signal that I lost my open AI password. 187 00:06:07,455 --> 00:06:08,235 Like nothing else. 188 00:06:08,235 --> 00:06:10,215 Like if you see me doing them, you're like, wait, 189 00:06:10,215 --> 00:06:11,415 where I did the power off? 190 00:06:11,415 --> 00:06:12,405 Like what are you doing? 191 00:06:12,615 --> 00:06:15,075 And again, like to your point, like things that used to seem 192 00:06:15,135 --> 00:06:18,165 really, really important to me, like digging through analytics 193 00:06:18,165 --> 00:06:19,170 and pattern spotting, right? 194 00:06:19,175 --> 00:06:19,365 Right. 195 00:06:19,425 --> 00:06:20,835 Seeing things other people couldn't see. 196 00:06:21,674 --> 00:06:22,664 I'm good at that. 197 00:06:22,935 --> 00:06:23,174 Yeah. 198 00:06:23,174 --> 00:06:25,305 I'm nowhere near as good at that as a machine that can 199 00:06:25,305 --> 00:06:28,995 crunch through millions of records of data in minutes. 200 00:06:29,294 --> 00:06:31,034 Um, just not, so 201 00:06:31,034 --> 00:06:32,685 I think this is the first building block 202 00:06:32,685 --> 00:06:33,645 of this conversation. 203 00:06:33,794 --> 00:06:36,645 I think let's first explore what should be replaceable. 204 00:06:37,349 --> 00:06:37,530 Right. 205 00:06:37,530 --> 00:06:41,280 So I know everyone has this, this I immediate reaction 206 00:06:41,280 --> 00:06:43,680 and it's visceral to say, I can't be replaced by 207 00:06:43,680 --> 00:06:44,460 machine, blah, blah, blah. 208 00:06:44,460 --> 00:06:47,039 I'm like, dude, you can, right? 209 00:06:47,070 --> 00:06:47,130 Yeah. 210 00:06:47,130 --> 00:06:47,940 And you will be. 211 00:06:48,180 --> 00:06:51,419 So let's talk about why you should be and 212 00:06:51,419 --> 00:06:52,171 what you do about it. 213 00:06:52,544 --> 00:06:52,815 Right. 214 00:06:52,815 --> 00:06:52,905 Sure. 215 00:06:52,905 --> 00:06:56,294 Not just like this, this natural tendency to just push 216 00:06:56,294 --> 00:06:59,174 back and just be like angry about it that buys you nothing. 217 00:06:59,655 --> 00:06:59,745 Yep. 218 00:06:59,745 --> 00:07:02,895 And there is a very, very, very long list of tombstones 219 00:07:03,135 --> 00:07:05,655 of people that had exactly that reaction and didn't 220 00:07:05,835 --> 00:07:07,365 work out well, particularly in the business world. 221 00:07:07,965 --> 00:07:11,174 So again, Ryan, when you think about things that are 222 00:07:11,174 --> 00:07:13,395 replaceable, that should be replaceable, that like, 223 00:07:13,455 --> 00:07:15,765 while, like you just mentioned analytics, that a moment 224 00:07:15,765 --> 00:07:17,354 ago you were like, Hey, this is what I got paid to 225 00:07:17,354 --> 00:07:20,594 do, and now it's like it's a $49 a month, uh, problem. 226 00:07:20,625 --> 00:07:20,835 Yep. 227 00:07:21,210 --> 00:07:22,230 What else comes to mind? 228 00:07:22,350 --> 00:07:22,980 It's the, the 229 00:07:22,980 --> 00:07:24,090 time consuming part of it. 230 00:07:24,090 --> 00:07:26,190 You can just look at it from a, a pure time calculus 231 00:07:26,190 --> 00:07:28,770 perspective, like, and replace the things that are gonna 232 00:07:28,770 --> 00:07:31,050 take you the most time and still, like, they're valuable. 233 00:07:31,055 --> 00:07:32,400 They, they need to be done, but they don't 234 00:07:32,400 --> 00:07:33,450 need to be done by you. 235 00:07:33,810 --> 00:07:36,600 You know, as we were coming into this episode today, will, 236 00:07:36,600 --> 00:07:39,540 I was, I was thinking about the process you've gone through 237 00:07:39,780 --> 00:07:41,490 with building the house. 238 00:07:41,580 --> 00:07:41,700 Mm-hmm. 239 00:07:42,030 --> 00:07:42,360 Right. 240 00:07:42,510 --> 00:07:45,600 And it occurred to me like, you know, you at the beginning, like 241 00:07:45,600 --> 00:07:48,990 you could have treated yourself as the architect, the GC. 242 00:07:49,305 --> 00:07:51,705 The plumber, the electrician, the framing guys. 243 00:07:51,705 --> 00:07:51,885 Right. 244 00:07:51,915 --> 00:07:52,425 All of it. 245 00:07:52,425 --> 00:07:52,605 Right. 246 00:07:52,605 --> 00:07:54,165 You could've just done all of it and you've done, you've 247 00:07:54,165 --> 00:07:57,645 done a lot of stuff, but at some point, like it makes 248 00:07:57,645 --> 00:08:01,605 a lot more sense for you to hire a GC and a plumber and 249 00:08:01,605 --> 00:08:02,775 electrician and all of that. 250 00:08:03,045 --> 00:08:03,285 Right? 251 00:08:03,285 --> 00:08:03,465 Right. 252 00:08:03,465 --> 00:08:06,075 Well, I think that, you know, we were once as founders, 253 00:08:06,075 --> 00:08:08,175 we were once the architect, GC plumber, all of it. 254 00:08:08,175 --> 00:08:09,105 Like we just had to do everything. 255 00:08:09,105 --> 00:08:11,145 We got so used to, especially at the time you and I 256 00:08:11,145 --> 00:08:11,895 came up through this. 257 00:08:11,955 --> 00:08:12,015 Yeah. 258 00:08:12,165 --> 00:08:13,125 We had to do everything. 259 00:08:13,130 --> 00:08:13,670 There wasn't anybody else to do it. 260 00:08:13,810 --> 00:08:14,190 You really did. 261 00:08:14,190 --> 00:08:14,350 Yep. 262 00:08:14,385 --> 00:08:15,375 There weren't tools to do stuff. 263 00:08:15,375 --> 00:08:18,255 We did a little of everything now. 264 00:08:18,630 --> 00:08:23,220 AI steps in as the GC and AI just hired the plumber. 265 00:08:23,400 --> 00:08:23,700 Yep. 266 00:08:24,330 --> 00:08:26,760 Now you can just stay in the architect's chair. 267 00:08:26,790 --> 00:08:26,970 Right. 268 00:08:26,970 --> 00:08:27,840 That's the way I see it. 269 00:08:27,840 --> 00:08:31,350 So what, what I'm looking at is like, how can I just stay 270 00:08:31,410 --> 00:08:35,460 a above that kind of messy work layer in a way that 271 00:08:35,460 --> 00:08:39,000 doesn't keep me uninformed, but doesn't have me overworked 272 00:08:39,030 --> 00:08:41,580 in the sense that like I could be doing more valuable stuff. 273 00:08:41,580 --> 00:08:42,780 So instead of having to crunch all the 274 00:08:42,780 --> 00:08:44,039 analytics like I used to. 275 00:08:44,580 --> 00:08:46,560 I can get the insight from that and I can spend more 276 00:08:46,560 --> 00:08:49,290 time deciding what to do based on that insight. 277 00:08:49,415 --> 00:08:50,189 Right, right, right. 278 00:08:50,189 --> 00:08:52,890 So the, the, the base level analysis, all of those kind 279 00:08:52,890 --> 00:08:56,100 of things just going away, anything that requires like 280 00:08:56,370 --> 00:09:01,560 mass creation or mass ingestion and kind of normalizing of 281 00:09:01,560 --> 00:09:03,630 information just gonna go away. 282 00:09:03,630 --> 00:09:03,631 Right. 283 00:09:03,725 --> 00:09:07,230 So at the marketing level, looking at across, like, you 284 00:09:07,230 --> 00:09:09,180 know, if we're honest with ourselves, we talk about AB 285 00:09:09,180 --> 00:09:11,910 testing and, and you know, optimization and all this 286 00:09:11,910 --> 00:09:13,050 stuff that we, that we do. 287 00:09:13,965 --> 00:09:17,535 Yet, it's sort of done on kind of like a rolling window basis. 288 00:09:17,595 --> 00:09:17,775 Mm-hmm. 289 00:09:18,075 --> 00:09:20,595 Do I look all the way back to the very first experiments 290 00:09:20,595 --> 00:09:22,455 I ran on Facebook ever. 291 00:09:22,875 --> 00:09:23,260 When I'm, yeah. 292 00:09:23,530 --> 00:09:24,525 When I'm running, running the ones now, yeah. 293 00:09:24,525 --> 00:09:27,825 I can't, I can't look at 6,000 ads. 294 00:09:28,425 --> 00:09:31,875 AI can, so now it allows me to do these things better. 295 00:09:31,875 --> 00:09:33,915 And it was never about the analysis before. 296 00:09:34,245 --> 00:09:36,105 It was about getting to the answer and then 297 00:09:36,225 --> 00:09:37,815 acting on the answer. 298 00:09:38,055 --> 00:09:38,175 Right. 299 00:09:38,175 --> 00:09:39,885 And I still think that the acting on the answer 300 00:09:39,885 --> 00:09:41,595 piece is still very much. 301 00:09:42,255 --> 00:09:43,275 In founder camp. 302 00:09:43,845 --> 00:09:44,685 We'll see for how long? 303 00:09:44,805 --> 00:09:44,985 I 304 00:09:44,985 --> 00:09:48,105 think a big part of where the pushback is, is there's an 305 00:09:48,105 --> 00:09:52,275 overwhelming focus, justifiably so right now around what 306 00:09:52,275 --> 00:09:53,835 AI is taking away from us. 307 00:09:54,195 --> 00:09:56,925 There's not enough of the conversation, and I think the 308 00:09:56,925 --> 00:10:00,165 smart founders are already pointing this direction around 309 00:10:00,225 --> 00:10:02,355 what it is enabling us to do. 310 00:10:02,625 --> 00:10:04,905 Not that nobody's ever mentioned what, what AI can do. 311 00:10:04,995 --> 00:10:05,055 Yeah. 312 00:10:05,145 --> 00:10:07,755 What I'm saying is as founders, as founders, 313 00:10:07,755 --> 00:10:10,755 there has to be a version of us that says, dude, like. 314 00:10:11,115 --> 00:10:12,225 I'm about to be Superman. 315 00:10:12,855 --> 00:10:13,035 Right. 316 00:10:13,035 --> 00:10:13,125 Yeah. 317 00:10:13,125 --> 00:10:15,375 Like for example, when I was first starting in my 318 00:10:15,375 --> 00:10:17,834 career, I didn't understand anything about finance. 319 00:10:17,834 --> 00:10:19,305 I mean, not even a little bit. 320 00:10:19,305 --> 00:10:22,064 And as you know, I've been a startup CFO for 25 years in 321 00:10:22,064 --> 00:10:23,235 addition to my, my day job. 322 00:10:23,625 --> 00:10:26,145 And it's not because I'm a financial wizard, it's 323 00:10:26,145 --> 00:10:28,814 because as soon as you put dollar signs in front of 324 00:10:28,814 --> 00:10:31,545 those numbers and you said, Hey, that's your money. 325 00:10:31,694 --> 00:10:31,875 Yeah. 326 00:10:31,875 --> 00:10:34,185 All of a sudden I was like the, the rainman of finance, right? 327 00:10:34,185 --> 00:10:35,714 Like I was just like, I, I understood it. 328 00:10:35,714 --> 00:10:36,165 All right? 329 00:10:36,165 --> 00:10:37,995 The matrix, it all made sense. 330 00:10:38,385 --> 00:10:41,115 But think of how under. 331 00:10:41,565 --> 00:10:42,225 Armed. 332 00:10:42,225 --> 00:10:44,745 I was at that time, right? 333 00:10:44,835 --> 00:10:47,235 He here, here's how I figured out finance. 334 00:10:47,505 --> 00:10:49,125 I drove to Barnes and Noble. 335 00:10:49,305 --> 00:10:52,815 I found a book that was probably published 15 years prior 336 00:10:52,995 --> 00:10:54,645 on small business finance. 337 00:10:54,885 --> 00:10:57,645 And I read it cover to cover, which took days, right? 338 00:10:57,645 --> 00:10:57,915 Yes. 339 00:10:58,095 --> 00:10:59,985 And it was the driest, most boring book ever. 340 00:11:00,015 --> 00:11:01,905 However, changed my life. 341 00:11:02,085 --> 00:11:05,595 But think of all the things that that had to happen in 342 00:11:05,595 --> 00:11:07,635 order for me to be able to do this one simple thing, 343 00:11:07,815 --> 00:11:09,765 which was put together an income statement, right? 344 00:11:09,765 --> 00:11:10,095 Yeah. 345 00:11:10,095 --> 00:11:10,096 Yeah. 346 00:11:10,515 --> 00:11:14,925 Now I can do that like a seasoned pro without even 347 00:11:14,925 --> 00:11:16,125 knowing how to do it. 348 00:11:16,214 --> 00:11:18,765 I just, I have to go back to this anecdote where, where 349 00:11:18,765 --> 00:11:20,564 you talked about, where you were asked for the income 350 00:11:20,564 --> 00:11:23,984 statement and you, you pulled out the, uh, you pulled the 351 00:11:23,984 --> 00:11:26,084 piece of paper outta your pocket that just had like the 352 00:11:26,084 --> 00:11:28,395 monthly, like the things you had spent money on that month 353 00:11:28,395 --> 00:11:29,300 and like showed the investor. 354 00:11:29,865 --> 00:11:30,615 I love that man. 355 00:11:31,665 --> 00:11:32,985 This, that was, that was, this is the moment where 356 00:11:32,985 --> 00:11:35,085 that education became obvious and necessary 357 00:11:35,085 --> 00:11:35,235 to you. 358 00:11:35,235 --> 00:11:37,035 That would've been really useful at that time. 359 00:11:37,125 --> 00:11:39,285 Hey, what's your pro forma income statement? 360 00:11:39,285 --> 00:11:40,245 My, my what? 361 00:11:40,305 --> 00:11:40,785 My what? 362 00:11:40,785 --> 00:11:44,235 My, um, here's a list of things I'm gonna 363 00:11:44,235 --> 00:11:45,135 buy at the store later. 364 00:11:45,135 --> 00:11:45,945 That the team, yes. 365 00:11:45,945 --> 00:11:48,675 I literally gave a, a word document of, of how much I 366 00:11:48,675 --> 00:11:49,635 owed my roommate that month. 367 00:11:49,995 --> 00:11:50,295 Yeah. 368 00:11:51,974 --> 00:11:53,295 But again, you know, plan it out a little bit. 369 00:11:53,295 --> 00:11:55,125 So we keep talking about the things that's 370 00:11:55,125 --> 00:11:55,994 taking away from us. 371 00:11:56,145 --> 00:11:58,875 But when I say, you know, some of these traits, you know, 372 00:11:58,935 --> 00:12:02,295 are replaceable, I'm saying not only are they replaceable, 373 00:12:02,564 --> 00:12:04,155 we should lean into that. 374 00:12:04,665 --> 00:12:04,875 Yeah, right. 375 00:12:05,295 --> 00:12:05,685 A hundred percent. 376 00:12:05,685 --> 00:12:08,204 My first reaction being AI is taking away my uniqueness 377 00:12:08,204 --> 00:12:09,285 of being a copywriter. 378 00:12:09,734 --> 00:12:10,994 Okay, got it. 379 00:12:11,234 --> 00:12:11,685 Okay. 380 00:12:12,015 --> 00:12:15,974 But how can AI also make me 10 x the copywriter? 381 00:12:16,365 --> 00:12:16,845 Right. 382 00:12:17,025 --> 00:12:17,115 Yeah. 383 00:12:17,120 --> 00:12:20,175 If, if, if I have so much to say, how can I say it 384 00:12:20,235 --> 00:12:22,814 exponentially faster, more efficiently, et cetera. 385 00:12:23,175 --> 00:12:26,595 Like, I've got an AI that's trained on my voice so I can 386 00:12:26,595 --> 00:12:29,805 tell it anything I want and it will respond in my voice. 387 00:12:29,985 --> 00:12:31,995 Now I don't love it. 388 00:12:32,265 --> 00:12:32,475 Right. 389 00:12:32,475 --> 00:12:32,925 I don't love it. 390 00:12:32,955 --> 00:12:35,865 So, so like, uh, when I used a brainstorm stuff, it'll come 391 00:12:35,865 --> 00:12:38,925 back in my voice, but it's, as you know, AI has a smell to it. 392 00:12:39,160 --> 00:12:39,450 Yeah. 393 00:12:39,455 --> 00:12:39,555 Yeah. 394 00:12:39,555 --> 00:12:39,855 So, 395 00:12:39,915 --> 00:12:41,985 so it's always like the, the kind of. 396 00:12:42,375 --> 00:12:44,025 AI version of my voice. 397 00:12:44,265 --> 00:12:44,535 Yeah, 398 00:12:44,565 --> 00:12:46,395 it's 80%, but it ain't a hundred percent. 399 00:12:46,665 --> 00:12:48,105 You mean auditory voice? 400 00:12:48,105 --> 00:12:50,265 You're not saying write something in your voice 401 00:12:50,265 --> 00:12:50,985 and tone, you mean? 402 00:12:50,985 --> 00:12:51,435 Oh yeah. 403 00:12:51,435 --> 00:12:52,185 Your actual voice point. 404 00:12:52,185 --> 00:12:52,485 Good point. 405 00:12:52,485 --> 00:12:53,920 Actually, the auditory voice is spot on. 406 00:12:54,525 --> 00:12:56,685 No, in this case, I mean the, uh, the, the, the writing 407 00:12:56,715 --> 00:12:59,955 and, and I gotta say, man, uh, what I get back if I 408 00:12:59,955 --> 00:13:02,295 published it as is, no one would know the difference. 409 00:13:02,295 --> 00:13:04,185 I'm the only person that can tell the difference in this 410 00:13:04,185 --> 00:13:05,835 case, but I can tell anyway. 411 00:13:05,835 --> 00:13:07,605 Maybe you just don't like your writing will maybe that 412 00:13:10,740 --> 00:13:13,155 I, I I always used to make the joke that if we ever come up 413 00:13:13,155 --> 00:13:16,275 with an AI that can replicate yourself, that will be the 414 00:13:16,275 --> 00:13:17,805 most hated person of all time. 415 00:13:18,135 --> 00:13:18,345 Oh, yeah. 416 00:13:18,345 --> 00:13:20,475 Or, or AI hang out with yourself all day long. 417 00:13:20,535 --> 00:13:21,195 Oh, how about this? 418 00:13:21,195 --> 00:13:21,196 God. 419 00:13:21,449 --> 00:13:23,910 An AI that is purely based on your search history. 420 00:13:23,910 --> 00:13:24,000 Yes. 421 00:13:24,270 --> 00:13:27,300 That person, the worst human of all time. 422 00:13:27,480 --> 00:13:28,470 Oh God, I hate that person. 423 00:13:28,680 --> 00:13:32,370 Anyway, I think that again, we're having that first initial 424 00:13:32,370 --> 00:13:35,941 reaction that says, you know, AI pad, blah, blah, blah. 425 00:13:36,000 --> 00:13:37,770 Um, we might wanna look at it going. 426 00:13:38,685 --> 00:13:41,475 Should you have had to know all of finance in order 427 00:13:41,475 --> 00:13:42,675 to advance your business. 428 00:13:42,735 --> 00:13:42,824 Yep. 429 00:13:42,915 --> 00:13:45,435 And there's gonna be some argument where someone says Yes, 430 00:13:45,435 --> 00:13:47,865 but that knowledge and what you went through Uhhuh, you know, 431 00:13:47,985 --> 00:13:50,745 taught you to do X, Y, Z, and, and there's some truth to that. 432 00:13:51,074 --> 00:13:51,285 Sure. 433 00:13:51,285 --> 00:13:54,584 But dude, that is a really painful, hard way to me, 434 00:13:54,584 --> 00:13:56,025 like 10 years to do it. 435 00:13:56,115 --> 00:13:56,355 Right. 436 00:13:56,355 --> 00:13:58,275 I needed that information day one, not 10 437 00:13:58,275 --> 00:13:58,845 years from now. 438 00:13:59,025 --> 00:14:00,765 This is here, here's, this is a big question. 439 00:14:00,765 --> 00:14:03,225 I don't think anybody can answer this just yet, but 440 00:14:03,225 --> 00:14:04,635 one of the questions is. 441 00:14:05,445 --> 00:14:08,505 How will this be different for people who didn't come up, who 442 00:14:08,505 --> 00:14:09,675 didn't have those hard lessons? 443 00:14:09,675 --> 00:14:11,565 So if you're just born now Yeah. 444 00:14:11,565 --> 00:14:13,875 And you, you just grow up an AI native. 445 00:14:13,905 --> 00:14:13,965 Yeah. 446 00:14:13,965 --> 00:14:16,455 You just have always had this stuff at hand. 447 00:14:16,455 --> 00:14:17,625 You're always using it. 448 00:14:18,255 --> 00:14:20,475 How does that change your ability to use it to see 449 00:14:20,475 --> 00:14:22,875 the difference between the, the, the good, the bad. 450 00:14:22,875 --> 00:14:23,655 To know that difference? 451 00:14:23,655 --> 00:14:26,025 Like you talked before about it A level, B level, C level. 452 00:14:26,025 --> 00:14:26,115 Yep. 453 00:14:26,385 --> 00:14:28,215 If you've never worked with a bunch of copywriters and 454 00:14:28,215 --> 00:14:29,835 seen a, B and C level copy. 455 00:14:30,225 --> 00:14:32,745 How will you know when AI's actually doing the right thing? 456 00:14:32,745 --> 00:14:33,015 Right. 457 00:14:33,314 --> 00:14:33,855 You won't. 458 00:14:33,890 --> 00:14:35,985 I, I, I actually just went through this, right. 459 00:14:36,105 --> 00:14:38,235 You know, as I'm designing my house, I use a tool called 460 00:14:38,235 --> 00:14:40,965 SketchUp, you know, which I put in the 3D model Within 461 00:14:40,965 --> 00:14:43,845 that I have to, I built all the cabinetry in the house and all 462 00:14:43,845 --> 00:14:45,045 the, the closets and everything. 463 00:14:45,314 --> 00:14:45,435 Yeah. 464 00:14:45,435 --> 00:14:46,965 And I had to build drawers, you know, for, 465 00:14:46,965 --> 00:14:47,954 for every one of those. 466 00:14:48,194 --> 00:14:50,505 Well, in order to go into SketchUp and create what, what 467 00:14:50,505 --> 00:14:54,704 amounted to 88 drawers to size them, create the 3D geometry 468 00:14:54,704 --> 00:14:57,135 and whatever, and get 'em all set up, would've taken forever. 469 00:14:57,600 --> 00:15:00,990 Okay, so this is a perfect example of me coming from 470 00:15:00,990 --> 00:15:03,210 a space that I'm not in and being able to do something. 471 00:15:03,210 --> 00:15:05,310 There's no way I would've ever been able to do. 472 00:15:05,820 --> 00:15:09,240 I go to GPT and I said, here's a list of all the drawers that 473 00:15:09,240 --> 00:15:11,340 I need, just like the, the widths and the, uh, depths. 474 00:15:11,700 --> 00:15:14,730 I said, make me ruby code, right? 475 00:15:15,120 --> 00:15:16,740 That I can import into SketchUp. 476 00:15:16,920 --> 00:15:19,680 That will automatically create all of the drawers 477 00:15:19,680 --> 00:15:21,420 that would, that would fit for these dimensions. 478 00:15:21,720 --> 00:15:24,270 Give them a, a notch and a data and you know, all this 479 00:15:24,270 --> 00:15:26,405 stuff, and create all the geometry, the full model. 480 00:15:27,270 --> 00:15:27,630 Right. 481 00:15:27,990 --> 00:15:29,310 Five seconds now. 482 00:15:29,760 --> 00:15:30,060 Okay. 483 00:15:30,060 --> 00:15:30,900 Nuts, dude. 484 00:15:31,290 --> 00:15:32,280 Unbelievable, right? 485 00:15:32,370 --> 00:15:32,430 Yeah. 486 00:15:32,430 --> 00:15:33,660 Would've taken me a week. 487 00:15:33,750 --> 00:15:34,110 Okay. 488 00:15:34,170 --> 00:15:36,420 Yeah, and I've got, I would've gotten it wrong. 489 00:15:36,420 --> 00:15:37,680 Now, a couple things. 490 00:15:37,770 --> 00:15:41,370 Number one, 99% chance, there's something in there that's wrong. 491 00:15:41,400 --> 00:15:43,050 There's a drawer with eight sides to it or 492 00:15:43,050 --> 00:15:44,130 something like that. 493 00:15:44,550 --> 00:15:44,610 Yeah. 494 00:15:44,640 --> 00:15:45,180 GT's. 495 00:15:45,180 --> 00:15:46,260 Just not very accurate. 496 00:15:46,560 --> 00:15:48,689 So it helps to know what you're looking for. 497 00:15:49,050 --> 00:15:49,980 But here's my point. 498 00:15:50,520 --> 00:15:52,020 This is the same with with finance. 499 00:15:52,410 --> 00:15:53,491 What it would've taken me. 500 00:15:54,120 --> 00:15:56,579 To perform the same operation. 501 00:15:57,089 --> 00:15:57,329 Yeah. 502 00:15:57,390 --> 00:15:59,189 To learn Ruby code, right? 503 00:15:59,189 --> 00:15:59,370 Yeah. 504 00:15:59,550 --> 00:16:02,550 To recheck all of my math, to be able to sit and see, I 505 00:16:02,550 --> 00:16:05,280 mean, like it would've taken me, uh, forget the Ruby Code. 506 00:16:05,280 --> 00:16:06,660 It would take me a week to do it manually. 507 00:16:06,660 --> 00:16:06,839 Right? 508 00:16:06,839 --> 00:16:06,900 Yeah. 509 00:16:06,900 --> 00:16:08,219 And longer to learn Ruby Code. 510 00:16:08,610 --> 00:16:11,099 And someone might say, yeah, but then you'd know Ruby Code 511 00:16:11,490 --> 00:16:12,390 and here's what I would say. 512 00:16:12,810 --> 00:16:13,349 Cool. 513 00:16:13,589 --> 00:16:15,360 I may never need that again. 514 00:16:15,480 --> 00:16:15,750 Right. 515 00:16:15,780 --> 00:16:17,969 I just needed to do that one thing. 516 00:16:18,480 --> 00:16:20,819 All my action script and cold fusion knowledge 517 00:16:20,819 --> 00:16:21,630 is getting used. 518 00:16:21,660 --> 00:16:23,819 Not at all at this point, right. 519 00:16:23,880 --> 00:16:25,020 I'm just say love that stuff. 520 00:16:25,020 --> 00:16:25,110 Like 521 00:16:25,319 --> 00:16:28,560 I don't necessarily, like, I get learning things and again, 522 00:16:28,564 --> 00:16:29,579 I, I love learning things. 523 00:16:29,579 --> 00:16:31,350 So they we're in a platform where we teach people 524 00:16:31,350 --> 00:16:34,650 stuff, but not everything a founder needs to do. 525 00:16:35,189 --> 00:16:38,370 They need to be the educated expert in all the 526 00:16:38,370 --> 00:16:39,510 eccentricities of that. 527 00:16:39,870 --> 00:16:41,880 It doesn't matter if you know a, B or C grade 528 00:16:41,880 --> 00:16:43,829 copy, you just need copy. 529 00:16:44,069 --> 00:16:44,130 Yeah. 530 00:16:44,130 --> 00:16:45,990 And if it doesn't sound like total shit, it's gonna 531 00:16:45,990 --> 00:16:46,260 work. 532 00:16:46,650 --> 00:16:47,760 It's gonna be a good starting point. 533 00:16:47,760 --> 00:16:48,810 At least you can always adjust it. 534 00:16:48,810 --> 00:16:48,870 Yeah. 535 00:16:48,960 --> 00:16:50,670 'cause the reality is we're not gonna know whether it's 536 00:16:50,670 --> 00:16:53,160 good copy or not until it faces some other humans. 537 00:16:53,340 --> 00:16:53,430 Mm-hmm. 538 00:16:53,670 --> 00:16:55,230 Or maybe some AI and gets picked up and search 539 00:16:55,230 --> 00:16:55,770 results and whatnot. 540 00:16:55,770 --> 00:16:56,160 Right, right. 541 00:16:56,490 --> 00:16:56,670 Yeah. 542 00:16:56,670 --> 00:17:00,030 So, you know, from my standpoint, I look at all of 543 00:17:00,030 --> 00:17:02,250 these things that I can now do. 544 00:17:02,445 --> 00:17:04,305 That I couldn't do five minutes ago. 545 00:17:04,635 --> 00:17:04,935 Okay. 546 00:17:04,935 --> 00:17:04,995 Yeah. 547 00:17:05,325 --> 00:17:08,085 So for example, the big thing now is people can write code. 548 00:17:08,355 --> 00:17:08,475 Yeah. 549 00:17:08,475 --> 00:17:08,625 Right? 550 00:17:08,835 --> 00:17:11,625 Which is, so, I mean, Ryan, you and I have haven't written a 551 00:17:11,625 --> 00:17:13,035 line of code in 20 years, right? 552 00:17:13,035 --> 00:17:16,695 Our knowledge is so far from useful at this point, but now I 553 00:17:16,695 --> 00:17:20,085 can write code in any language for any purpose I can get 554 00:17:20,085 --> 00:17:21,795 MVPs put together, et cetera. 555 00:17:22,095 --> 00:17:23,085 How is that not 556 00:17:23,085 --> 00:17:23,985 a force multiplier? 557 00:17:24,285 --> 00:17:28,785 The time it takes me to create a landing page now. 558 00:17:28,935 --> 00:17:30,675 Right now, not a read to chip, right? 559 00:17:30,675 --> 00:17:32,265 It's gotta go over to Dev and they gotta do their stuff track. 560 00:17:32,265 --> 00:17:35,475 But the time it takes me to create a landing page now is 561 00:17:35,475 --> 00:17:37,665 less than the time it would've taken me to go through the 562 00:17:37,665 --> 00:17:40,995 drawer to find the pencil to do the sketch on paper. 563 00:17:41,115 --> 00:17:41,505 Right? 564 00:17:41,865 --> 00:17:43,605 It's bananas. 565 00:17:43,605 --> 00:17:46,965 How much faster we can move and how we can get onto like 566 00:17:46,965 --> 00:17:48,555 the important parts, right? 567 00:17:48,555 --> 00:17:50,745 Because the important part wasn't drafting the wire frame. 568 00:17:50,745 --> 00:17:52,485 The important part is getting that page launched. 569 00:17:53,520 --> 00:17:56,040 Getting traffic point of that page and starting to 570 00:17:56,040 --> 00:17:58,620 then have AI analyze the results and tell me what 571 00:17:58,620 --> 00:17:59,490 still needs to be changed. 572 00:17:59,640 --> 00:18:00,600 Fantastic. 573 00:18:00,840 --> 00:18:01,110 Right? 574 00:18:01,110 --> 00:18:01,950 This is what you want. 575 00:18:02,280 --> 00:18:06,450 It's short circuits, so many tedious processes. 576 00:18:06,810 --> 00:18:10,560 The number of hard choices I have to make now. 577 00:18:10,979 --> 00:18:13,590 Are so significantly lower because it's like, well, I 578 00:18:13,590 --> 00:18:16,320 can do this, or I could do that, or I could do that, 579 00:18:16,320 --> 00:18:17,310 or I could do that one. 580 00:18:17,310 --> 00:18:18,300 What are we gonna get to this week? 581 00:18:18,600 --> 00:18:20,760 All we'll just do, just yes is the answer. 582 00:18:20,760 --> 00:18:22,679 Now, I love being able to just say, yes, come on, why not? 583 00:18:23,189 --> 00:18:23,340 Right? 584 00:18:23,340 --> 00:18:26,429 Like, oh my God, in, in my getting customers workshops 585 00:18:26,429 --> 00:18:27,479 on Mondays and Fridays. 586 00:18:28,020 --> 00:18:31,950 The number of requests I can now field people that need help with 587 00:18:31,950 --> 00:18:34,800 really heavy lifting stuff were honestly, most of the lifting 588 00:18:34,800 --> 00:18:36,840 was on their part, but I still had to show 'em how to do it. 589 00:18:37,050 --> 00:18:37,379 Yep. 590 00:18:37,590 --> 00:18:39,810 This is part of where I'm just like automating and, 591 00:18:39,810 --> 00:18:40,950 and AIing like crazy. 592 00:18:40,950 --> 00:18:43,230 Like what am I asking founders to do over and over and 593 00:18:43,230 --> 00:18:45,659 over again That not only are they resistant to, but I 594 00:18:45,659 --> 00:18:47,190 know they desperately need. 595 00:18:47,475 --> 00:18:47,895 Cool. 596 00:18:47,925 --> 00:18:51,014 Let's AI the shit outta that because having something done is 597 00:18:51,014 --> 00:18:52,245 better than having nothing done. 598 00:18:52,245 --> 00:18:52,334 Right. 599 00:18:52,665 --> 00:18:54,705 And in a lot of cases it's just motivating them to do 600 00:18:54,705 --> 00:18:57,885 more of sometimes the manual work, but it shows them the 601 00:18:57,885 --> 00:18:59,354 power of what that thing is. 602 00:18:59,354 --> 00:19:01,304 If, if anything, it just serves like a little simulation. 603 00:19:01,814 --> 00:19:04,754 IP, or like, you know, I'm a huge fan of the Mom test, right? 604 00:19:04,754 --> 00:19:04,935 Yeah. 605 00:19:04,965 --> 00:19:05,655 Love that book. 606 00:19:05,835 --> 00:19:06,675 Please go buy the book. 607 00:19:07,034 --> 00:19:08,385 Rob Fitzpatrick did a great job with it. 608 00:19:08,385 --> 00:19:11,024 But the process of going through that, for a lot of 609 00:19:11,024 --> 00:19:12,735 founders, they're like, I'm just not gonna go do that, 610 00:19:12,735 --> 00:19:13,425 or I'm not gonna go do it. 611 00:19:13,425 --> 00:19:13,784 Right? 612 00:19:13,995 --> 00:19:15,945 It's me going to Barnes Noble and buying that book. 613 00:19:15,945 --> 00:19:16,185 Right? 614 00:19:16,189 --> 00:19:16,876 It them, yeah, yeah, yeah. 615 00:19:16,965 --> 00:19:19,845 I simulate it for them in 15 minutes. 616 00:19:20,085 --> 00:19:23,110 Then they're like, oh, that's what this tells me. 617 00:19:23,805 --> 00:19:25,635 Yeah, that's what this tells you now, right? 618 00:19:25,875 --> 00:19:28,425 You can trust this to a degree 'cause it's based on 619 00:19:28,425 --> 00:19:29,265 the average of the internet. 620 00:19:29,385 --> 00:19:30,465 It'll get most of it right? 621 00:19:30,675 --> 00:19:32,535 But you should also pick up the phone and talk to a couple 622 00:19:32,535 --> 00:19:34,755 of your, your, your people and get the actual answers. 623 00:19:34,755 --> 00:19:37,395 And it's been a great motivational factor, 624 00:19:37,665 --> 00:19:38,175 which is awesome. 625 00:19:38,175 --> 00:19:38,295 So if. 626 00:19:38,955 --> 00:19:40,995 Like, and, and here's the thing, every time I do 627 00:19:40,995 --> 00:19:43,065 that, there isn't a founder going, but Ryan, aren't 628 00:19:43,065 --> 00:19:44,295 you replacing a part of me? 629 00:19:44,295 --> 00:19:45,705 Yeah, a part of me that you didn't want to exist 630 00:19:45,705 --> 00:19:46,245 in the first place. 631 00:19:46,395 --> 00:19:46,575 Right? 632 00:19:46,580 --> 00:19:46,670 Alright. 633 00:19:46,670 --> 00:19:46,830 Right. 634 00:19:46,875 --> 00:19:47,805 Nobody's upset about it. 635 00:19:47,865 --> 00:19:48,525 Nobody. 636 00:19:48,525 --> 00:19:49,755 They're all like, great. 637 00:19:49,755 --> 00:19:52,005 I can get onto the part where we turn that 638 00:19:52,005 --> 00:19:53,655 into useful information to sell people stuff. 639 00:19:53,895 --> 00:19:54,885 You know, something that's 640 00:19:54,885 --> 00:19:58,305 really funny about everything we talk about here is 641 00:19:58,365 --> 00:20:00,045 that none of it is new. 642 00:20:00,315 --> 00:20:02,865 Everything you're dealing with right now has been done a 643 00:20:02,865 --> 00:20:06,735 thousand times before you, which means the answer already exists. 644 00:20:06,735 --> 00:20:07,515 You may just not know it. 645 00:20:07,810 --> 00:20:08,590 But that's okay. 646 00:20:08,950 --> 00:20:10,750 That's kind of what we're here to do. 647 00:20:10,810 --> 00:20:13,419 We talk about this stuff on the show, but we actually 648 00:20:13,419 --> 00:20:17,409 solve these problems all dayLong@groups.startups.com. 649 00:20:17,620 --> 00:20:20,919 So if any of this sounds familiar, stop guessing 650 00:20:20,980 --> 00:20:23,950 about what to do, let us just give you the answers to the 651 00:20:23,950 --> 00:20:25,300 test and be done with it. 652 00:20:25,370 --> 00:20:28,129 As a carpenter myself, uh, whenever I'm, you know, building 653 00:20:28,129 --> 00:20:31,340 a house, I think to myself, there's no carpenter ever 654 00:20:31,489 --> 00:20:32,689 that's thinking to themselves. 655 00:20:32,989 --> 00:20:35,959 I'm so pissed off that you gave me a, a powered circular saw. 656 00:20:35,989 --> 00:20:37,580 My hand saw was so much better. 657 00:20:38,179 --> 00:20:38,300 Yeah. 658 00:20:39,125 --> 00:20:39,695 Dick, come on. 659 00:20:39,725 --> 00:20:40,014 Yeah. 660 00:20:40,459 --> 00:20:43,159 Just rubbing my head without blisters on my hands just 661 00:20:43,159 --> 00:20:43,939 doesn't feel the same. 662 00:20:43,939 --> 00:20:44,000 Yeah. 663 00:20:44,209 --> 00:20:46,669 You know, like, need those calluses. 664 00:20:46,669 --> 00:20:46,729 All 665 00:20:46,729 --> 00:20:46,820 right. 666 00:20:47,060 --> 00:20:48,739 So we've definitely said yes. 667 00:20:48,739 --> 00:20:51,050 There's tons of stuff that can be replaced, right? 668 00:20:51,050 --> 00:20:51,110 Yeah. 669 00:20:51,110 --> 00:20:53,149 And, and we're almost saying, and should be. 670 00:20:53,640 --> 00:20:53,970 Right. 671 00:20:53,970 --> 00:20:55,740 Like, like do not resist. 672 00:20:55,740 --> 00:20:57,780 In this case, a lot of the stuff, not everything, and 673 00:20:58,050 --> 00:20:59,880 we're about to go the other direction, a lot of this 674 00:20:59,880 --> 00:21:01,470 stuff should be replaced. 675 00:21:01,470 --> 00:21:04,050 We should embrace the replacing like we're shedding 676 00:21:04,050 --> 00:21:07,410 skin because the world just got way easier for us. 677 00:21:07,410 --> 00:21:07,470 Yeah. 678 00:21:07,800 --> 00:21:08,940 But let's talk about the other side. 679 00:21:09,000 --> 00:21:10,530 You know, we said the, the topic of this is 680 00:21:10,530 --> 00:21:12,120 can AI replace founders? 681 00:21:12,360 --> 00:21:13,440 But let's talk about the other side. 682 00:21:13,860 --> 00:21:15,330 What makes us unique? 683 00:21:15,330 --> 00:21:17,280 What is AI not likely to replace? 684 00:21:17,280 --> 00:21:20,760 And I wanna caveat this by saying there is a sci-fi 685 00:21:20,760 --> 00:21:22,320 version of everything. 686 00:21:22,860 --> 00:21:25,020 Where you could say and make an argument, and I'm one 687 00:21:25,020 --> 00:21:26,730 of the people that can make this argument that would 688 00:21:26,730 --> 00:21:29,880 say, no matter how hard you try to say that humans are 689 00:21:29,880 --> 00:21:31,050 always going to be unique. 690 00:21:31,350 --> 00:21:34,590 We are an algorithm, and algorithms can be replicated. 691 00:21:34,590 --> 00:21:34,800 Right? 692 00:21:34,800 --> 00:21:37,470 So I, I wanna be clear when I say this, we're not, Ryan and 693 00:21:37,470 --> 00:21:39,900 I aren't sitting here being like humanity is, you know, 694 00:21:39,930 --> 00:21:40,920 irreplaceable in any way. 695 00:21:40,920 --> 00:21:44,040 That like, we, we recognize that at some extreme level there's 696 00:21:44,040 --> 00:21:46,980 probably an AI that, that can do some things, but at a practical 697 00:21:46,980 --> 00:21:50,550 level, at a level that actually makes sense for, for either now 698 00:21:50,550 --> 00:21:51,660 or in, in the very near future. 699 00:21:52,514 --> 00:21:57,554 I don't believe that AI can do some really human things. 700 00:21:57,794 --> 00:21:57,885 Sure. 701 00:21:57,885 --> 00:21:59,175 And I don't believe it should. 702 00:21:59,475 --> 00:22:01,725 I think, you know, if, if we're saying AI can create 703 00:22:01,725 --> 00:22:04,064 music, but should it, right? 704 00:22:04,064 --> 00:22:04,155 Yeah. 705 00:22:04,155 --> 00:22:04,335 Yes. 706 00:22:04,335 --> 00:22:05,925 It can create something Right. 707 00:22:06,345 --> 00:22:08,985 But the point of music wasn't to make the music. 708 00:22:09,585 --> 00:22:10,965 It was a form of expression, 709 00:22:11,264 --> 00:22:13,784 which usually comes from a place of need to express Right. 710 00:22:13,845 --> 00:22:15,870 AI will never need to express itself. 711 00:22:16,200 --> 00:22:16,350 Correct. 712 00:22:16,500 --> 00:22:17,580 It doesn't take anything away from that. 713 00:22:17,585 --> 00:22:17,910 Correct. 714 00:22:18,060 --> 00:22:18,330 Right. 715 00:22:18,330 --> 00:22:21,300 And I think now there's something really fascinating 716 00:22:21,840 --> 00:22:24,120 about how we get to use our uniqueness. 717 00:22:24,120 --> 00:22:25,740 Let's say again, I'm gonna go back to me as a writer, 718 00:22:26,220 --> 00:22:27,360 imagine for a second. 719 00:22:27,360 --> 00:22:29,730 There are two components of me being a writer. 720 00:22:30,435 --> 00:22:33,225 The part where I can generate a unique thought that people 721 00:22:33,225 --> 00:22:35,205 might give a shit about, and the part where I can 722 00:22:35,205 --> 00:22:37,215 translate that to words that people might wanna read. 723 00:22:37,425 --> 00:22:37,485 Yeah. 724 00:22:37,485 --> 00:22:37,755 Okay. 725 00:22:38,325 --> 00:22:40,935 The latter has been mostly replaced, right? 726 00:22:40,935 --> 00:22:40,995 Yeah. 727 00:22:41,025 --> 00:22:43,905 Just about any thought I have can be translated to 728 00:22:43,905 --> 00:22:46,395 words that are 90% of what I would've used anyway. 729 00:22:46,815 --> 00:22:47,295 Okay. 730 00:22:47,295 --> 00:22:49,125 As weird as that is, it's It's true. 731 00:22:49,995 --> 00:22:51,015 But the unique thought. 732 00:22:52,004 --> 00:22:54,435 This, this unique idea, this, this, this unique 733 00:22:54,435 --> 00:22:55,425 opinion, et cetera. 734 00:22:56,055 --> 00:22:58,305 AI can come up with variants. 735 00:22:58,365 --> 00:23:00,615 They can't come up with my variant necessarily. 736 00:23:00,675 --> 00:23:01,034 Right? 737 00:23:01,425 --> 00:23:05,835 So what happens is my voice now, I mean my voice vis-a-vis the 738 00:23:05,835 --> 00:23:08,685 work that I do, the things that I produce in life, et cetera, 739 00:23:08,925 --> 00:23:11,175 becomes force multiplied. 740 00:23:11,385 --> 00:23:11,504 Yeah. 741 00:23:11,534 --> 00:23:15,764 If before I could, my opinion could generate one article, now 742 00:23:15,764 --> 00:23:17,264 my opinions can generate 50. 743 00:23:17,805 --> 00:23:19,905 Right now they can generate a goddamn movie in the 744 00:23:19,905 --> 00:23:20,774 not to distant future. 745 00:23:21,135 --> 00:23:23,055 That is amazing. 746 00:23:23,085 --> 00:23:25,755 But in order for all that to happen, the uniqueness has to 747 00:23:25,755 --> 00:23:26,865 be me having something to say. 748 00:23:27,105 --> 00:23:27,405 Yeah. 749 00:23:27,495 --> 00:23:28,845 It starts with that, right? 750 00:23:28,845 --> 00:23:30,705 Like the, the things that it's, you know, the, the key to 751 00:23:30,705 --> 00:23:33,825 differentiators at this point are, you know, like vision, 752 00:23:33,885 --> 00:23:36,915 narrative, human urgency, moral compass, like these 753 00:23:36,915 --> 00:23:37,965 things can't be replaced yet. 754 00:23:37,965 --> 00:23:39,945 Humor still not particularly good at that. 755 00:23:40,155 --> 00:23:40,395 Right. 756 00:23:40,425 --> 00:23:45,795 Um, but I wonder to some degree, like you said, that like, it 757 00:23:45,795 --> 00:23:47,595 can't come with my thought, but. 758 00:23:48,465 --> 00:23:51,165 Part of that, how, how much of that is, is the way 759 00:23:51,165 --> 00:23:52,710 that we use it right now? 760 00:23:52,730 --> 00:23:53,149 Mm-hmm. 761 00:23:53,270 --> 00:23:53,271 Right 762 00:23:53,690 --> 00:23:55,065 Now, I have tested this a little bit. 763 00:23:55,215 --> 00:23:58,215 I played around with like, instead of saying, here's 764 00:23:58,215 --> 00:23:59,355 what I think, right? 765 00:23:59,355 --> 00:24:01,725 The rest of this, it's sort of like, here's 766 00:24:01,725 --> 00:24:02,715 the thing that happened. 767 00:24:03,135 --> 00:24:05,115 What do you think my reaction to this is? 768 00:24:05,385 --> 00:24:05,715 Right. 769 00:24:06,525 --> 00:24:07,185 It's interesting. 770 00:24:07,365 --> 00:24:09,075 It's really interesting and, and basically like, 771 00:24:09,075 --> 00:24:10,095 what do I think about this? 772 00:24:10,095 --> 00:24:11,535 What do you think I think about this based on 773 00:24:11,535 --> 00:24:12,225 what you know about me? 774 00:24:12,225 --> 00:24:12,645 What do you think? 775 00:24:12,645 --> 00:24:15,405 I think because we've both given AI plenty of information 776 00:24:15,675 --> 00:24:18,555 about ourselves, and certainly it learns all the time as 777 00:24:18,555 --> 00:24:21,915 we're, as we're utilizing it, but to your point, it comes up 778 00:24:21,915 --> 00:24:23,835 with some, some possibilities. 779 00:24:23,895 --> 00:24:25,185 I, I would say it's still. 780 00:24:25,695 --> 00:24:27,794 Generally not close. 781 00:24:27,945 --> 00:24:30,824 But then I wonder like how much of that is my own bias 782 00:24:30,824 --> 00:24:33,314 saying that's not exactly what I would've thought about that. 783 00:24:33,314 --> 00:24:34,544 Or, well, when I thought about it already, that's 784 00:24:34,544 --> 00:24:35,445 not what I thought about it. 785 00:24:36,014 --> 00:24:36,584 But how about this? 786 00:24:36,584 --> 00:24:38,264 What if we were taking this a step further and 787 00:24:38,264 --> 00:24:40,606 we're to say, what matters now is what you want. 788 00:24:41,280 --> 00:24:43,200 Not what the AI might respond to mm-hmm. 789 00:24:43,410 --> 00:24:45,510 But what you specifically want. 790 00:24:45,540 --> 00:24:48,360 In other words, I can go into an AI right now and I 791 00:24:48,360 --> 00:24:50,580 can say, give me ideas for what startups might want. 792 00:24:50,850 --> 00:24:51,150 Okay. 793 00:24:51,180 --> 00:24:52,650 And it'll, it'll come up with tons of ideas. 794 00:24:52,795 --> 00:24:55,080 And, and I would say it'll come up with probably 795 00:24:55,080 --> 00:24:57,960 75% of the ideas that I would've come up with. 796 00:24:58,170 --> 00:24:58,500 Right. 797 00:24:58,500 --> 00:25:00,060 Just enough darts at a wall. 798 00:25:00,060 --> 00:25:00,360 Right. 799 00:25:00,360 --> 00:25:01,560 Like, uh, you know, whatever. 800 00:25:01,920 --> 00:25:04,230 But the, and, and, and one of them might've matched 801 00:25:04,230 --> 00:25:04,950 what I was gonna say. 802 00:25:04,950 --> 00:25:05,700 That's perfectly fine. 803 00:25:05,700 --> 00:25:06,000 Right. 804 00:25:06,210 --> 00:25:08,460 But the point is, I'm the curator. 805 00:25:08,695 --> 00:25:10,465 I'm the one that says, no, not that. 806 00:25:10,525 --> 00:25:11,275 Yes, that. 807 00:25:11,305 --> 00:25:12,025 No, not that. 808 00:25:12,025 --> 00:25:12,595 Yes, that. 809 00:25:12,985 --> 00:25:16,015 My vision, what I want is what matters. 810 00:25:16,165 --> 00:25:17,485 That goes back to music. 811 00:25:17,575 --> 00:25:20,365 Yes, AI can create some version of music, but the 812 00:25:20,365 --> 00:25:21,955 composer is what matters. 813 00:25:21,955 --> 00:25:23,186 The composer decides right. 814 00:25:23,610 --> 00:25:24,780 Is that what they want? 815 00:25:24,990 --> 00:25:25,379 Right. 816 00:25:25,500 --> 00:25:27,300 It's not like, uh, I'm a composer. 817 00:25:27,750 --> 00:25:29,730 The AI creates a song and I'm like, I hate it, but 818 00:25:29,730 --> 00:25:30,750 I have to have it anyway. 819 00:25:31,050 --> 00:25:31,320 Right. 820 00:25:31,919 --> 00:25:35,220 The whole point is, yeah, we are, we are the final decision. 821 00:25:35,220 --> 00:25:37,679 We, you know, we are, to your point earlier, the architect 822 00:25:38,129 --> 00:25:41,610 of all of this we're the one that our curatorial ability 823 00:25:41,940 --> 00:25:44,550 to be able to say, yes, this, yes, this, yes, this, 824 00:25:44,760 --> 00:25:48,389 whether it's people, product, marketing, copy, et cetera, 825 00:25:48,629 --> 00:25:50,159 is what makes us unique. 826 00:25:50,760 --> 00:25:53,490 Yeah, I mean at this point, like go back to some of our other 827 00:25:53,490 --> 00:25:58,020 analogies, like AI can draft all the blueprints, but like 828 00:25:58,350 --> 00:26:01,410 it can't convince the city to build the skyline, can't it? 829 00:26:01,860 --> 00:26:02,160 Right. 830 00:26:02,160 --> 00:26:02,430 Like 831 00:26:02,880 --> 00:26:03,120 Right. 832 00:26:03,270 --> 00:26:05,115 Or just have the vision to why you'd wanna do it to begin with. 833 00:26:05,774 --> 00:26:06,135 Right. 834 00:26:06,284 --> 00:26:09,344 What I'm saying is what makes us unique is 835 00:26:09,344 --> 00:26:10,784 this curatorial vision. 836 00:26:11,205 --> 00:26:13,245 What doesn't make us unique is laying all the 837 00:26:13,245 --> 00:26:14,385 bricks to do it anymore. 838 00:26:14,564 --> 00:26:15,044 No, I know. 839 00:26:15,225 --> 00:26:17,985 So again, going back to to, to my, my place in the world 840 00:26:17,985 --> 00:26:19,784 as a writer, which I've given a lot of thought to. 841 00:26:19,995 --> 00:26:22,094 What makes me unique is the fact that I have 842 00:26:22,094 --> 00:26:23,594 a lot of unique ideas. 843 00:26:23,960 --> 00:26:26,690 Right, or just, or unique to me, whether anybody else has thought 844 00:26:26,690 --> 00:26:27,830 'em before, who cares, right? 845 00:26:27,950 --> 00:26:28,610 Unique to me. 846 00:26:29,180 --> 00:26:32,900 But now I no longer have the time element, the 847 00:26:32,900 --> 00:26:35,480 writer's block element, et cetera, that prevents 848 00:26:35,480 --> 00:26:36,140 me from expressing them. 849 00:26:36,810 --> 00:26:37,110 Right. 850 00:26:37,140 --> 00:26:40,590 So whereas before, you know, I read a, a weekly newsletter that 851 00:26:40,590 --> 00:26:42,780 you, that we published, that we, that we do this podcast based 852 00:26:42,780 --> 00:26:46,650 on before, I'm like, okay, it takes me x amount of time to 853 00:26:46,650 --> 00:26:48,210 take whatever unique idea I had. 854 00:26:48,210 --> 00:26:51,510 Like, can I replace founders and convert that into, uh, copy. 855 00:26:51,960 --> 00:26:54,690 Now it still takes me roughly the same amount of 856 00:26:54,690 --> 00:26:57,420 time, uh, because I like to play with the idea. 857 00:26:57,420 --> 00:26:58,980 I like to wrestle with the idea. 858 00:26:59,190 --> 00:27:01,320 It's not like I'm just trying to write a, a newsletter. 859 00:27:01,320 --> 00:27:03,450 Like I try to, like, I, it's very cathartic 860 00:27:03,450 --> 00:27:05,070 for me, but ultimately. 861 00:27:05,305 --> 00:27:07,405 It's my idea, right? 862 00:27:07,525 --> 00:27:10,525 Uh, you know, that I'm breaking AI can gimme 50 variants of, 863 00:27:10,525 --> 00:27:13,285 of how AI would talk about it, but I'm still the curator. 864 00:27:13,285 --> 00:27:15,475 I'm still the one to say, yes, this, no that, yes, 865 00:27:15,475 --> 00:27:17,215 this, no, that it's my job. 866 00:27:17,215 --> 00:27:19,045 And this is, this is a metaphor for building a startup. 867 00:27:19,405 --> 00:27:21,895 It's still my job to orchestrate all of this. 868 00:27:22,470 --> 00:27:23,730 Well, it always was, right? 869 00:27:23,790 --> 00:27:25,890 It's, it's funny to me that we don't think about it in these 870 00:27:25,890 --> 00:27:28,680 same ways because in a lot of cases, at the early stages, as 871 00:27:28,680 --> 00:27:31,440 the founder, we, we start by doing everything, and then the 872 00:27:31,440 --> 00:27:34,470 second we can afford it, we start to hire out specialists. 873 00:27:34,470 --> 00:27:36,480 We start to hire out other people, sometimes not even 874 00:27:36,480 --> 00:27:38,550 specialists, just people can do the work, right? 875 00:27:38,550 --> 00:27:41,190 If it's just rote work, you hire people capable of rote work 876 00:27:41,220 --> 00:27:42,605 and they do the work, right? 877 00:27:43,035 --> 00:27:44,535 You don't hire a bricklayer. 878 00:27:44,535 --> 00:27:46,395 If you're building a 6,000 square foot high house, 879 00:27:46,515 --> 00:27:47,385 you hire a bunch of them. 880 00:27:47,445 --> 00:27:47,715 Right? 881 00:27:47,840 --> 00:27:48,000 Right. 882 00:27:48,105 --> 00:27:50,355 So we've always had this concept that like, you know, 883 00:27:50,355 --> 00:27:51,435 we'll, we'll hire it out. 884 00:27:51,435 --> 00:27:52,215 We'll hire out the work. 885 00:27:52,215 --> 00:27:53,385 We'll, we'll divide the labor. 886 00:27:53,655 --> 00:27:55,695 We just have a different ability to do that. 887 00:27:55,755 --> 00:27:56,055 Right. 888 00:27:56,085 --> 00:27:59,804 GPT just became the assembly line to our Henry Ford. 889 00:27:59,925 --> 00:28:00,015 Right. 890 00:28:00,015 --> 00:28:02,025 We got the same 24 hours of work in. 891 00:28:02,115 --> 00:28:02,385 Yep. 892 00:28:02,385 --> 00:28:04,335 But we've got a hundred x the output now. 893 00:28:04,395 --> 00:28:04,845 You bet. 894 00:28:04,875 --> 00:28:05,145 You bet. 895 00:28:05,175 --> 00:28:07,515 Now I also think another aspect which, which I, I don't 896 00:28:07,515 --> 00:28:10,725 wanna overlook or not get into, is just the fundamental 897 00:28:10,725 --> 00:28:11,805 concept of leadership. 898 00:28:12,149 --> 00:28:16,020 Be it a mixture of pure anxiety, like pure, 899 00:28:16,169 --> 00:28:20,189 unadulterated, anxiety, excitement in fervor, right? 900 00:28:20,250 --> 00:28:20,550 Yeah. 901 00:28:20,879 --> 00:28:23,429 Vision, which I think is a term that's overused, but it's, 902 00:28:23,429 --> 00:28:24,570 it's certainly a part of this. 903 00:28:24,600 --> 00:28:24,990 Right. 904 00:28:25,169 --> 00:28:27,084 And just fucking determination. 905 00:28:27,930 --> 00:28:28,890 Determination. 906 00:28:28,895 --> 00:28:29,855 Just be able to say determination, 907 00:28:29,860 --> 00:28:31,620 deciding that we are, we're going to keep doing this 908 00:28:31,620 --> 00:28:32,820 until we get it right. 909 00:28:32,910 --> 00:28:33,390 Correct. 910 00:28:33,630 --> 00:28:33,930 AI's not 911 00:28:33,930 --> 00:28:34,470 gonna care. 912 00:28:34,590 --> 00:28:34,770 Yeah. 913 00:28:34,770 --> 00:28:35,070 Right. 914 00:28:35,070 --> 00:28:36,240 And, and nor should it. 915 00:28:36,450 --> 00:28:36,690 Right. 916 00:28:36,840 --> 00:28:37,590 That's the point though. 917 00:28:37,620 --> 00:28:40,740 Like if you look behind any successful company and frankly 918 00:28:40,740 --> 00:28:44,640 many unsuccessful ones, what you have behind this company is 919 00:28:44,640 --> 00:28:46,530 a freakishly determined person. 920 00:28:46,860 --> 00:28:47,070 Yeah. 921 00:28:47,160 --> 00:28:51,000 To see this through, despite all logic. 922 00:28:51,345 --> 00:28:51,585 Right. 923 00:28:51,585 --> 00:28:55,065 That's what makes founders the most unique, is that 924 00:28:55,065 --> 00:28:58,875 we are able to run in, run naked, into the abyss despite. 925 00:28:59,580 --> 00:29:01,380 Everything that would tell us otherwise. 926 00:29:01,530 --> 00:29:01,800 Yes. 927 00:29:01,800 --> 00:29:03,900 And figure out how to somehow come out on the other side. 928 00:29:03,900 --> 00:29:04,560 I'll give you an example. 929 00:29:04,890 --> 00:29:06,240 Uh, you know, one of my favorite would be both 930 00:29:06,270 --> 00:29:08,160 Airbnb and Uber, right? 931 00:29:08,160 --> 00:29:11,400 Two famously successful companies with the 932 00:29:11,430 --> 00:29:12,930 dumbest ideas ever. 933 00:29:13,200 --> 00:29:13,380 Okay? 934 00:29:13,380 --> 00:29:16,050 When I say dumb, I, I, I, obviously, I, I'm kidding when 935 00:29:16,050 --> 00:29:18,870 I say this, but when those poor bastards had to go out there 936 00:29:18,870 --> 00:29:23,130 into the market and pitch this idea, they both got eviscerated. 937 00:29:23,280 --> 00:29:24,150 Rent your couch 938 00:29:24,150 --> 00:29:25,200 to strangers, right? 939 00:29:26,084 --> 00:29:27,945 Everyone who owns a car can be a taxi driver. 940 00:29:28,034 --> 00:29:29,354 Now, who would fund that? 941 00:29:29,564 --> 00:29:30,794 Who would fund that? 942 00:29:30,794 --> 00:29:31,034 Right. 943 00:29:31,034 --> 00:29:32,475 That's the dumbest idea. 944 00:29:32,475 --> 00:29:34,725 Like do you have any understanding the first 945 00:29:34,725 --> 00:29:37,574 time someone doesn't come home from an Airbnb because 946 00:29:37,665 --> 00:29:39,675 yeah, they got taken. 947 00:29:39,675 --> 00:29:41,985 Or somebody that doesn't ever get out of a Uber cab 948 00:29:42,195 --> 00:29:43,185 is the end of that business. 949 00:29:43,334 --> 00:29:44,685 Like no one will ever use it again. 950 00:29:45,135 --> 00:29:46,665 And you know, I, I go back further. 951 00:29:46,665 --> 00:29:47,324 I go back to eBay. 952 00:29:47,705 --> 00:29:49,685 Wait, someone's gonna put pictures on the internet 953 00:29:49,865 --> 00:29:51,995 Uhhuh and say that they own something, right? 954 00:29:51,995 --> 00:29:52,085 Yep. 955 00:29:52,175 --> 00:29:53,975 And someone's just gonna send them money and hope 956 00:29:53,980 --> 00:29:54,995 they, they actually had it. 957 00:29:54,995 --> 00:29:55,390 I'm gonna the money and hope 958 00:29:55,390 --> 00:29:56,015 it gets here. 959 00:29:56,105 --> 00:29:56,165 Yeah. 960 00:29:56,165 --> 00:29:56,345 Right. 961 00:29:56,345 --> 00:29:57,575 I'm like, that'll never work. 962 00:29:57,575 --> 00:29:57,755 Yeah. 963 00:29:57,755 --> 00:29:58,205 Somehow it did. 964 00:29:58,205 --> 00:29:58,385 Right? 965 00:29:58,625 --> 00:29:58,955 But 966 00:29:58,955 --> 00:29:59,527 my point is, do you know how many 967 00:29:59,532 --> 00:30:01,895 kidneys I've bought for the Prince of of 968 00:30:01,895 --> 00:30:02,315 Kenya? 969 00:30:03,785 --> 00:30:05,015 So, but here's the point, man. 970 00:30:05,375 --> 00:30:08,855 In order for that to work, you have to have an 971 00:30:08,915 --> 00:30:13,625 individual behind it that has an optimism, that looks 972 00:30:13,625 --> 00:30:17,165 beyond analysis, that looks beyond, you know, rationality. 973 00:30:17,804 --> 00:30:18,014 Yep. 974 00:30:18,044 --> 00:30:20,985 And says, yeah, but what if, right? 975 00:30:20,985 --> 00:30:21,639 But what if Right. 976 00:30:21,669 --> 00:30:23,679 Like, and gets is the core of us 977 00:30:23,679 --> 00:30:24,044 agree, right? 978 00:30:24,044 --> 00:30:25,935 And gets other people to agree, right? 979 00:30:26,115 --> 00:30:27,000 From Absolutely. 980 00:30:27,000 --> 00:30:30,225 From partners to, to, to funders, to customers, to staff. 981 00:30:30,584 --> 00:30:32,175 And I get, that's what I was getting at before, right? 982 00:30:32,175 --> 00:30:34,365 Like again, AI can craft the blueprint. 983 00:30:34,725 --> 00:30:38,024 AI could probably even contract out the house, but like. 984 00:30:39,015 --> 00:30:41,205 You gotta live in it, you gotta convince somebody else 985 00:30:41,205 --> 00:30:42,135 to buy it, to live in it. 986 00:30:42,225 --> 00:30:44,595 That's not yet, we're nowhere near that yet. 987 00:30:45,045 --> 00:30:46,905 Uh, so where we have that level of confidence in this 988 00:30:46,905 --> 00:30:47,115 thing. 989 00:30:47,415 --> 00:30:49,545 So let me take this to the next level, right? 990 00:30:49,740 --> 00:30:52,665 If, if, if all this is true, if, if our uniqueness is our 991 00:30:52,665 --> 00:30:55,935 ability to create, innovate, lead, et cetera, then if 992 00:30:55,935 --> 00:30:57,945 we were to think about what's the job description? 993 00:30:58,304 --> 00:31:00,165 Of the next generation of founder. 994 00:31:00,284 --> 00:31:01,875 Here's how I've been thinking about it. 995 00:31:01,875 --> 00:31:03,225 You know, again, as a founder myself, I've been 996 00:31:03,225 --> 00:31:03,945 thinking about it as well. 997 00:31:03,945 --> 00:31:05,745 Number one, my job description is to stop 998 00:31:05,745 --> 00:31:08,264 doing things that something else can do for me, right? 999 00:31:08,264 --> 00:31:08,385 Yep. 1000 00:31:08,445 --> 00:31:10,814 Not of laziness, out of straight up efficiency. 1001 00:31:11,235 --> 00:31:13,005 The second thing, and I think this is the hardest bit for, 1002 00:31:13,245 --> 00:31:17,175 for me, Ryan, has been stop thinking in, in what your 1003 00:31:17,175 --> 00:31:18,915 previous output terms were. 1004 00:31:18,919 --> 00:31:20,415 It goes back what I said a moment ago. 1005 00:31:20,415 --> 00:31:22,245 In one day I could create five pages. 1006 00:31:22,274 --> 00:31:22,575 Yep. 1007 00:31:22,905 --> 00:31:25,635 You're no longer the guy that can create five pages. 1008 00:31:26,340 --> 00:31:29,310 That's taken me a long time to, to get outta that mentality. 1009 00:31:29,669 --> 00:31:32,070 I still ha like, I think about my output still 1010 00:31:32,070 --> 00:31:34,919 being a, a version one of will, so to speak. 1011 00:31:35,189 --> 00:31:35,760 That's been hard. 1012 00:31:35,760 --> 00:31:35,970 How about 1013 00:31:35,970 --> 00:31:36,179 you? 1014 00:31:36,300 --> 00:31:39,810 I think for me it wasn't just about recalibrating the output, 1015 00:31:40,020 --> 00:31:42,090 but even reconsidering the KPI. 1016 00:31:42,510 --> 00:31:42,840 Right? 1017 00:31:42,840 --> 00:31:48,600 So it wasn't like, okay, so not five pages of content, a hundred 1018 00:31:48,600 --> 00:31:50,520 pages of content, neither. 1019 00:31:50,580 --> 00:31:50,879 Right? 1020 00:31:50,879 --> 00:31:52,710 So it used to be five pages of content. 1021 00:31:52,710 --> 00:31:53,280 Now it's. 1022 00:31:53,925 --> 00:31:55,335 How much impact did it have? 1023 00:31:55,335 --> 00:31:55,635 Right? 1024 00:31:55,785 --> 00:31:57,075 How many likes did it get? 1025 00:31:57,075 --> 00:31:57,615 How, what? 1026 00:31:57,615 --> 00:31:58,545 What was the intent of the car? 1027 00:31:58,545 --> 00:31:58,635 Right? 1028 00:31:58,635 --> 00:31:59,955 It depends on what the intent of the content was. 1029 00:31:59,955 --> 00:32:00,360 Yeah, yeah, yeah. 1030 00:32:00,365 --> 00:32:02,625 But rather like getting to that final outcome. 1031 00:32:02,625 --> 00:32:05,085 Because writing the writing the newsletter wasn't the point. 1032 00:32:05,535 --> 00:32:08,715 It's now let's measure it in how many pieces of positive feedback 1033 00:32:08,715 --> 00:32:09,645 did we get on that thing, right? 1034 00:32:09,645 --> 00:32:12,435 Because now we can focus on something entirely 1035 00:32:12,435 --> 00:32:14,145 different, and by the way, feed that back into the 1036 00:32:14,145 --> 00:32:15,855 machine and have it help us to achieve even more of that. 1037 00:32:15,855 --> 00:32:22,725 So it's a shift from doing the work to creating the impact. 1038 00:32:23,385 --> 00:32:23,625 Correct. 1039 00:32:23,625 --> 00:32:25,815 So I think that's really where it goes from because we used 1040 00:32:25,815 --> 00:32:28,605 to just have to do the work and then measure the impact. 1041 00:32:28,605 --> 00:32:31,275 Now I think we can just stay at more like the impact 1042 00:32:31,275 --> 00:32:34,665 layer, at least theoretically, because we truly no longer 1043 00:32:34,665 --> 00:32:36,045 have to do the work. 1044 00:32:36,255 --> 00:32:37,455 At least three parts 1045 00:32:38,265 --> 00:32:40,035 and, and also like again, how we think about 1046 00:32:40,035 --> 00:32:41,055 building our organizations. 1047 00:32:41,085 --> 00:32:44,145 It used to be add lots of headcount, like that was the 1048 00:32:44,145 --> 00:32:46,275 seminal like bragging point. 1049 00:32:46,649 --> 00:32:46,830 Right. 1050 00:32:46,830 --> 00:32:47,040 Yeah. 1051 00:32:47,399 --> 00:32:49,350 You know, we've done whole episodes about this where it's 1052 00:32:49,350 --> 00:32:52,320 like a CEO would say, well, I have this many people, and it 1053 00:32:52,320 --> 00:32:56,010 would imply that that's like an army that they have the ability 1054 00:32:56,010 --> 00:32:57,659 to, to go to war with, right? 1055 00:32:57,665 --> 00:32:58,165 And, and more people. 1056 00:32:58,165 --> 00:32:58,530 When are we gonna 1057 00:32:58,530 --> 00:32:58,919 hear this? 1058 00:32:58,919 --> 00:33:00,330 Brag Will, we're gonna hear this brag. 1059 00:33:00,689 --> 00:33:01,950 We were gonna drop the headcount thing. 1060 00:33:01,950 --> 00:33:03,870 Nobody's gonna say like, yeah, we just hit a thousand people. 1061 00:33:03,870 --> 00:33:07,050 Like, yeah, we just hit, uh, 1500 a day on our, 1062 00:33:07,050 --> 00:33:08,220 uh, on our API costs. 1063 00:33:09,090 --> 00:33:09,705 Yeah, yeah, yeah. 1064 00:33:10,125 --> 00:33:11,594 At some point that goes there, right? 1065 00:33:11,594 --> 00:33:12,855 Like that becomes the new brag. 1066 00:33:12,855 --> 00:33:15,975 It's like we are running so much AI within that, you're gonna 1067 00:33:15,975 --> 00:33:18,044 have a lot of people who have to kind of 1068 00:33:18,044 --> 00:33:19,514 recalibrate what that means. 1069 00:33:19,574 --> 00:33:19,665 Sure. 1070 00:33:19,665 --> 00:33:22,635 Particularly founders, because again, our old job description 1071 00:33:22,635 --> 00:33:25,574 was get lots of resources, ergo, capital, humans, et 1072 00:33:25,574 --> 00:33:27,375 cetera, to get big things done. 1073 00:33:27,855 --> 00:33:30,465 And all of a sudden those same pieces don't 1074 00:33:30,465 --> 00:33:31,605 mean what they used to. 1075 00:33:32,024 --> 00:33:32,985 And we're like, wait a minute. 1076 00:33:33,044 --> 00:33:35,175 My job isn't to go hoard all that stuff. 1077 00:33:35,495 --> 00:33:38,524 My job is to figure out how to be wildly efficient to, to 1078 00:33:38,705 --> 00:33:41,615 be able to do 10 x with, uh, 10 x more, with 10 x less. 1079 00:33:41,975 --> 00:33:45,094 Which by the way, for, for early founders is the 1080 00:33:45,094 --> 00:33:45,935 best news in the world. 1081 00:33:46,355 --> 00:33:46,774 Exactly. 1082 00:33:46,774 --> 00:33:48,004 You don't have any resources. 1083 00:33:48,064 --> 00:33:48,334 Right. 1084 00:33:48,544 --> 00:33:51,514 But I think this is particularly difficult for, call it 1085 00:33:51,514 --> 00:33:53,794 more seasoned founders like ourselves, is that we're 1086 00:33:53,794 --> 00:33:54,935 calling ourselves these days. 1087 00:33:55,745 --> 00:33:58,774 I'm trying to think a really kind word, but 1088 00:33:58,774 --> 00:34:00,365 I think for, for us. 1089 00:34:00,680 --> 00:34:02,930 You know, we have to, to zoom out and say, dude, the 1090 00:34:02,930 --> 00:34:06,080 way I was built in, in the world I came from before, 1091 00:34:06,530 --> 00:34:08,750 thankfully does not exist. 1092 00:34:09,050 --> 00:34:10,070 And I've gotta evolve. 1093 00:34:10,639 --> 00:34:10,820 Yeah. 1094 00:34:10,909 --> 00:34:13,550 I have to evolve to this next version of me. 1095 00:34:13,730 --> 00:34:16,429 Or like everything else, someone else evolve for me. 1096 00:34:16,639 --> 00:34:20,270 Yeah, man, I'm, I'm hoping we see more and more like. 1097 00:34:20,715 --> 00:34:22,155 Comfort around that evolution. 1098 00:34:22,185 --> 00:34:23,500 'cause I'm still seeing a lot of people see that. 1099 00:34:23,500 --> 00:34:24,179 Oh, you never do though, 1100 00:34:24,280 --> 00:34:24,500 man. 1101 00:34:24,500 --> 00:34:26,655 This is, this is the part, you and I have 1102 00:34:26,655 --> 00:34:27,675 been through this before. 1103 00:34:27,795 --> 00:34:31,034 I know we went the earliest and, and we were still kids, so to 1104 00:34:31,034 --> 00:34:32,955 speak, was the PC revolution. 1105 00:34:33,074 --> 00:34:33,945 Remember how many, oh my God. 1106 00:34:34,125 --> 00:34:35,324 How many people were like, I don't want one 1107 00:34:35,324 --> 00:34:36,225 of those on my desk. 1108 00:34:36,465 --> 00:34:36,675 Right? 1109 00:34:36,675 --> 00:34:37,304 Yeah, yeah, yeah. 1110 00:34:37,304 --> 00:34:38,340 Even my secretary and a typewriter. 1111 00:34:38,900 --> 00:34:39,680 That went well. 1112 00:34:39,860 --> 00:34:42,500 And then, you know, the era that we grew up, smack dab in 1113 00:34:42,500 --> 00:34:45,650 the middle of the internet era in the nineties, every single 1114 00:34:45,650 --> 00:34:48,920 person was like, you know, I don't want that damn internet. 1115 00:34:48,980 --> 00:34:49,220 Right? 1116 00:34:49,250 --> 00:34:50,930 Like, oh, that guy ain't 1117 00:34:50,930 --> 00:34:51,650 around anymore. 1118 00:34:51,710 --> 00:34:52,100 Right. 1119 00:34:52,160 --> 00:34:54,950 I will never forget it wasn't the sales call, it was a 1120 00:34:54,950 --> 00:34:57,350 consult meeting, like was, we used to know, walk into 1121 00:34:57,350 --> 00:35:00,020 people's offices and sat down and started explaining. 1122 00:35:00,020 --> 00:35:01,790 And you, you've talked about this too, like explaining to 1123 00:35:01,790 --> 00:35:02,750 people what the internet was. 1124 00:35:03,315 --> 00:35:06,285 And this guy totally smug is like, oh, I have that right 1125 00:35:06,285 --> 00:35:09,674 here in my desk drawer and pulls out the aol an a OL three and a 1126 00:35:09,674 --> 00:35:11,535 half floppy, or maybe not aol. 1127 00:35:11,535 --> 00:35:13,065 May have been, may have been copy. 1128 00:35:13,335 --> 00:35:16,245 It was somebody right point being like. 1129 00:35:16,320 --> 00:35:17,460 I had no idea. 1130 00:35:17,520 --> 00:35:19,860 And it was one of those people probably not around. 1131 00:35:20,040 --> 00:35:20,310 Right. 1132 00:35:20,310 --> 00:35:21,720 And all of those are dinosaurs. 1133 00:35:21,810 --> 00:35:22,080 Right. 1134 00:35:22,200 --> 00:35:25,440 The key for us as founders is not to be that dinosaur. 1135 00:35:25,590 --> 00:35:25,680 Yeah. 1136 00:35:25,680 --> 00:35:27,390 In order to not to be the dinosaur, you gotta 1137 00:35:27,390 --> 00:35:28,230 embrace the change. 1138 00:35:28,260 --> 00:35:28,320 Yeah. 1139 00:35:28,440 --> 00:35:30,780 Even if you don't like it, it it, no one's saying 1140 00:35:30,780 --> 00:35:31,620 you have to like it. 1141 00:35:31,650 --> 00:35:33,210 No one's saying you have to be pro ai. 1142 00:35:33,390 --> 00:35:34,620 You can hate ai. 1143 00:35:35,010 --> 00:35:35,100 Yeah. 1144 00:35:35,100 --> 00:35:36,240 But you have to evolve with it. 1145 00:35:36,240 --> 00:35:37,560 It's part of the world right now. 1146 00:35:37,800 --> 00:35:40,235 And yes, it's got a crazy number of drawbacks. 1147 00:35:40,860 --> 00:35:41,100 Right. 1148 00:35:41,100 --> 00:35:41,160 Yeah. 1149 00:35:41,190 --> 00:35:41,760 That's okay. 1150 00:35:41,910 --> 00:35:42,450 That's okay. 1151 00:35:42,510 --> 00:35:43,680 Uh, some of those will get worked out. 1152 00:35:43,680 --> 00:35:45,030 Some of those will get worse if we're being honest. 1153 00:35:45,090 --> 00:35:45,270 Yeah. 1154 00:35:45,360 --> 00:35:49,410 But our job isn't to figure out why it's wrong per se. 1155 00:35:49,410 --> 00:35:49,470 Yeah. 1156 00:35:49,740 --> 00:35:53,640 Our job is to be able to say, okay, now I get to do this. 1157 00:35:53,670 --> 00:35:54,510 Now I get to do this. 1158 00:35:54,570 --> 00:35:56,731 Like now I get to write Ruby Code to make. 1159 00:35:57,229 --> 00:35:58,520 Uh, drawer boxes, right? 1160 00:35:58,520 --> 00:35:58,609 Yep. 1161 00:35:58,640 --> 00:36:01,310 In, in a way that I could never do before, right? 1162 00:36:01,399 --> 00:36:01,580 Yeah. 1163 00:36:01,580 --> 00:36:04,430 Now I get to be able to answer questions in five seconds. 1164 00:36:04,430 --> 00:36:05,600 That would've taken me a week. 1165 00:36:05,839 --> 00:36:06,200 Right? 1166 00:36:06,319 --> 00:36:07,939 Now I get to do all these things. 1167 00:36:08,149 --> 00:36:09,049 What does it mean for me? 1168 00:36:09,200 --> 00:36:13,069 What is v two of me knowing that all, like everything 1169 00:36:13,069 --> 00:36:14,029 has changed, right? 1170 00:36:14,029 --> 00:36:16,459 And that I can kind of be like, uh, forever extended. 1171 00:36:16,879 --> 00:36:19,040 Ryan, do you remember, uh, in the Matrix when, 1172 00:36:19,069 --> 00:36:21,875 uh, he downloads Kung fu when Kea Reeves, uh, do 1173 00:36:22,069 --> 00:36:23,450 downloads kung fu, right? 1174 00:36:23,450 --> 00:36:25,069 That classic, oh, I know Kung fu. 1175 00:36:25,430 --> 00:36:27,440 I tried for weeks to download Kung fu. 1176 00:36:27,710 --> 00:36:29,540 It turns out I, it doesn't work. 1177 00:36:30,225 --> 00:36:33,794 Well, so, but my point is like, we now have that ability, right. 1178 00:36:33,794 --> 00:36:34,365 So to speak. 1179 00:36:34,395 --> 00:36:34,455 Yeah. 1180 00:36:34,455 --> 00:36:34,634 Right. 1181 00:36:34,634 --> 00:36:38,084 Like we now have that ability, if we don't evolve 1182 00:36:38,504 --> 00:36:42,345 and leverage that ability, we will get replaced. 1183 00:36:42,404 --> 00:36:43,245 Yeah, of course. 1184 00:36:43,395 --> 00:36:47,564 Not by ai, but by the other founders who, who are 1185 00:36:47,564 --> 00:36:49,185 actually using ai using it. 1186 00:36:49,185 --> 00:36:50,055 Right, right. 1187 00:36:50,055 --> 00:36:52,245 And, and using it and embracing it in the way 1188 00:36:52,245 --> 00:36:53,205 that it's supposed to be. 1189 00:36:53,564 --> 00:36:55,395 And so, so here's what I would say overall. 1190 00:36:55,605 --> 00:36:57,615 I think, you know, when we look at the question, 1191 00:36:57,615 --> 00:36:59,685 can AI replace founders? 1192 00:37:00,285 --> 00:37:00,975 Yes. 1193 00:37:01,335 --> 00:37:02,985 If we let it, yes. 1194 00:37:03,345 --> 00:37:06,885 If we let it, if we become no more than just those automatons 1195 00:37:06,885 --> 00:37:09,885 that we're doing, you know, rote work, then, then yes, 1196 00:37:09,885 --> 00:37:12,105 it can and, and frankly, right, it probably should. 1197 00:37:12,165 --> 00:37:15,015 But if we zoom out and say, okay, uh, you know, some 1198 00:37:15,015 --> 00:37:15,765 of that's scary, et cetera. 1199 00:37:16,529 --> 00:37:19,439 But if I use this, if I exist as the architect, 1200 00:37:19,649 --> 00:37:23,430 the curator, the creative mind, right, the mastermind 1201 00:37:23,430 --> 00:37:28,109 behind all these tools, now I can create 10 x what I 1202 00:37:28,109 --> 00:37:29,609 would've ever created before. 1203 00:37:29,879 --> 00:37:33,270 Now I can become a founder and, and have the, the outcome 1204 00:37:33,270 --> 00:37:36,930 and the output that I've never even dreamed of before. 1205 00:37:37,169 --> 00:37:39,149 At which point we evolve to that person. 1206 00:37:39,330 --> 00:37:41,460 Literally anything is possible. 1207 00:37:42,585 --> 00:37:44,415 Overthinking your startup because you're going it alone. 1208 00:37:44,835 --> 00:37:47,715 You don't have to, and honestly, you shouldn't because instead, 1209 00:37:47,715 --> 00:37:50,655 you can learn directly from peers who've been in your shoes. 1210 00:37:50,895 --> 00:37:53,235 Connect with bootstrap founders and the advisors 1211 00:37:53,235 --> 00:37:55,665 helping them win in the startups.com community. 1212 00:37:55,815 --> 00:38:00,465 Check out the startups.com community@www.startups.com 1213 00:38:00,555 --> 00:38:01,485 to see if it's for you. 1214 00:38:01,725 --> 00:38:02,775 Could be just the thing you need. 1215 00:38:02,985 --> 00:38:03,975 I hope to see you inside.