The Startup Ideas Podcast

In this solo episode, I lay out how I think about building an AI-proof business now that anyone can press a few buttons and spin up a company in seconds. Layoffs keep coming, people copy products pixel for pixel, and I still see more opportunity than ever. I walk through eight categories: atoms, permission, attention, timing, belonging, liquidity, unique data, and outcomes. I share examples like Hampton, final.com, and Cars & Bids, say how I'd rank the categories, and show how to mix them. If you're an employee looking at a startup or a founder worried about getting copied, this episode gives you a map for building something with value when AI makes software, content, and answers almost free. Timestamps 00:00 – Intro 01:17 – Atoms: Physical Businesses 02:26 – Permission: Licenses, Regulation, and Partnerships 04:10 – Attention: Building a Media Machine 06:28 – Timing: Spotting Trends Early 08:24 – Belonging: Paid Communities and IRL Events 10:59 – Liquidity: Marketplaces 14:38 – Unique Data: Data Brokers and…

I sit down with Nick, co-founder of Orgo, to break down how to build a custom Grok Bot for a business and sell it for $25,000 up front with a $3,000-a-month retainer. Nick demos Bops, the agent platform he built in a 36-hour weekend, where each bot has its own phone number, email, and computer with four screens. He walks me through his research, design, and build process, the stack behind each bot, and the offer he takes to business owners. We also cover how to pick a niche by calling 50 people you know and how to turn one free case study into warm referrals. If you want to sell AI employees to businesses, this episode gives you the stack, the offer, and an open source repo you can fork today. Links Mentioned Nick’s Bops: https://startup-ideas-pod.link/bops Timestamps 00:00 – Intro 03:09 – Bops, Custom Grok Bot Team 05:07 – Dumb SaaS vs. Custom Apps 07:02 – Selling AI Agent Teams 09:49 – Demoing Bop 13:57 – One Agent per Platform 15:07 – Step 1: Research 17:49 – Step 2: Design 22:12 – Step 3: Picking The…

In this solo episode, I explain why I say SaaS is dead and what I see taking its place. For 15 years, SaaS meant paying engineers to build a tool and charging per seat, and now models like Opus 5.5, GPT-6, and Argon make the tool easy to build. I walk through what I call smart SaaS: give the tool away for free, collect data and network effects, and make money by upselling AI agents and human services. I share a calorie tracking example, three ways to charge, and why enterprises still pay per seat. If you build software, this episode gives you a map for building something people want in a market where the tool is free. Timestamps 00:00 – Intro 00:47 – SaaS 1.0 02:56 – SaaS 2.0: The New Business Model 05:12 – How to monetize SaaS 2.0 06:18 – Service is the new Software 07:22 – SaaS Is Dead, Long Live SaaS 08:58 – SMB vs Enterprise 10:31 – Closing Thoughts Key Points AI makes the tool easy to build, so the per-seat model of the last 15 years has run its course. Smart SaaS gives the tool away and collects data…

I sit down with Jon Noronha, co-founder and chief product officer of Gamma, to break down agent harnesses and the startup openings around them. Jon explains how Gamma rebuilt its product as a creative agent this year and walks me through the roughly 20 models and 200 calls behind one finished presentation. We talk about AI smell, why taste carries more weight than evals in creative work, how Gamma tests a new model within the hour, and the fast mode test that lost to good friction. Jon also shares the harnesses he wants to see, from a Slack agent that learns his voice to a couch shopping tool that checks the fit in your room. If you want to build a vertical agent, this episode gives you a clear model of what a harness is and where your edge can come from. This episode was made possible thanks to Anthropic (the team behind Claude) for hosting us at Claude Founder house and sponsoring the episode. Timestamps 00:00 – Intro 01:23 – What Is an Agent Harness 03:36 – Harnesses as the New Wrappers 04:25 – Inside One…

Get Your Complete Financial OS at https://startup-ideas-pod.link/brex_SIP I sit down with James Dickerson, the Boring Marketer, who owns Diesel Dudes, a mobile diesel repair business in Charlotte, North Carolina, and spent years running agencies for local businesses. James shows how to sell AI-built funnels to Main Street trades businesses doing $2 million to $20 million a year, starting with a Boring Funnels search that found 100 Dallas plumbers worth pitching. He walks through the leaks he finds on their landing pages, the funnel offers he'd sell, and how he'd win clients with the Dream 100, lumpy mail, and local meetups. If you know how to use coding agents, this episode gives you a full playbook for a service business built around booked jobs. Build funnels that sell: https://startup-ideas-pod.link/boring_funnels Timestamps 00:00 – Intro 01:23 – Sponsor: Brex 02:08 – Why sell AI to Main Street 03:05 – James's Background 04:32 – Finding and Picking a Niche 07:26 – The $2M to $20M Opportunity 09:02 –…

In this solo episode, I break down the war on AI agents, from Amazon blocking Meta's Muse to Delta treating outside booking agents as unauthorized automated activity to Yelp charging agents for access. I share how I think about an agent, as a customer with a credit card who reads your site instead of looking at it, and the ladder of trust that runs from research to prepare to pay. Then I walk through each big player's bet, my nine stages for how this war plays out, five moves any business can make this week, and the startup ideas I see between agents and the businesses they buy from. If you run a store or build products, this episode gives you a map for selling to customers who send an agent to shop for them. Timestamps 00:00 – Intro 02:09 –The Three Camps 05:08 – How I Define an Agent 06:52 – The Ladder of Trust 08:54 – Real Reasons to Block Agents 09:48 – What Agents Skip 12:57 – How Each Company is Playing it 17:06 – Lessons From Mint and Plaid 17:49 – The 9 stages of The War on Agents 21:56 – What to do…

Get Your Complete Financial OS at https://startup-ideas-pod.link/brex_SIP In this solo episode, I break down how to make money with Meta Muse by mining Facebook groups, Marketplace, and Instagram to match buyers with sellers. The idea came after my wife and I had a baby and the agency we hired for a night nurse admitted it found candidates in Facebook groups. I demo Muse finding night nurses at $30 an hour in Montreal, show how to give it a phone number through Bland AI, and share the Marketplace and Instagram tactics I'd use. I close with my four-level framework for growing a matching side business into a trusted list, a community, and a vertical software company. Timestamps 00:00 – Intro 01:19 – Sponsor: Brex 03:22 – Meta Muse 03:52 – Why this is a big opportunity 04:33 – Picking a Niche, City, and Rules 05:44 – Owning the asset and data 06:51 – Cleaning Data You Own 08:27 – Lessons From eBay 10:37 – A Phone Number With Bland AI 11:30 – Undervalued Facebook Groups 12:55 – Business Pages and IG Niche Pages…

Gemini 4 Argon is LIVE, Google's most advanced AI model, try it for yourself: https://startup-ideas-pod.link/gemini4-argon In this solo episode, I share what I learned after a week with Gemini 4 Argon, Google's new frontier model. I show three places it shines: marketing with AI, physical AI, and complex engineering, with a real build for each. You'll see Argon rebuild my holding company's website, write a post in my voice, design a Shopify product customizer that exports STL files, and build a free quoting app for commercial cleaning companies. I close with six techniques that raise Argon's output quality and the Google AI plan I'd pick for building. Timestamps 00:00 – Intro 01:35 – What Gemini 4 Argon Does Well 03:09 – Rebuilding the Late Checkout Website 07:49 – Justine Moore's Apple Computer Museum 09:20 – Using Argon for writing 13:03 – Physical AI and Vibe Manufacturing 17:41 – Made-to-Order Shopify Store 19:01 – Building Boring SaaS 21:59 – Commercial Cleaning Quote App 25:12 – 6 techniques to get the…

In this solo episode, I walk through eight GitHub repos and AI skills that I test at night and on weekends. The list covers launch videos, social research, local voice and dubbing, editable decks, agent teams, lead-magnet tools, idea stress-testing, and design guidance. For each one, I explain what it does, how I'd set it up, and one concrete way to use it to make money or run a business more easily. Most are free to download, and you pay for the model you run them with. Timestamps 00:00 – Intro 01:25 – Brag: Launch Videos From a Link 04:50 – Agent Reach for Customer Research 07:46 – Voice Studio: Local AI Voice and Dubbing 10:41 – PPT Master: Editable Decks From Notes 12:59 – OpenRig: Coding Agents as a Team 14:57 – Free Tools Skill by Corey Haynes 17:25 – Grill Me Skill by Matt Pocock 19:31 – Impeccable: Design Guidance for Agents 23:03 – My Top Picks: Brag and Agent Reach 24:07 – Closing Thoughts GitHub Repo Links: Brag (launch video skill): https://startup-ideas-pod.link/brag Agent Reach:…

In this solo episode, I walk through the 13 businesses I think are left to build in the agentic era. I believe that in a world of agents and abundance, owning the right assets puts you in a better position. For each business, I explain what it is, why it holds up in a world of agents, and one or two examples, from Othership's sauna clubs to Osmo's window-cleaning robots. This episode gives you a map of where to build next, at any age. Timestamps 00:00 – Intro 01:15 – AI-Native Service Firms 02:57 – Offline Businesses 05:41 – Distribution and Organic Audiences 07:34 – Proprietary Data Sets 09:08 – Domain-Specific Harnesses 12:16 – Robotics and Physical AI 14:01 – Physical Products With a Fan Following 16:34 – Compute and Energy 17:31 – Health, Longevity, and Care 19:30 – Marketplaces and Social Networks 21:04 – Real Assets 21:46 – Vertical Agents 22:18 – Security 24:08 – Closing Thoughts Key Points In an AI-native service firm, agents do most of the delivery and a human reviews the exceptions. Ad clicks went…

Google's most advanced audio models are LIVE, try them for yourself: Gemini 3.8 Live: https://startup-ideas-pod.link/gemini-3.8-live Gemini 3.5 Transcribe https://startup-ideas-pod.link/gemini-3.5-transcribe Gemini 3.5 Live Translate: https://startup-ideas-pod.link/gemini-3.5-live-translate In this episode, I talk with Vas from Varick about what it takes to put AI to work inside a real company. Vas makes the case that AI pays off through process reengineering, and he walks me through the exact method his forward deployed engineers (FDEs) use: interviews, process mining, step sorting, and agents built inside existing systems of record. We go through real engagements, including a $5B public software company and an accounts payable overhaul that cut the cost per invoice from $31 to $6. By the end, you get a clear picture of the FDE role, the business opportunity behind AI roll-ups, and a five-day plan to start on your own. Links Mentioned: FDE Presentation: https://startup-ideas-pod.link/FDE-slides Vas’s…

I watched almost 60 minutes of Sam Altman on stage at OpenAI Dev Day 2026. Out of 20-plus launches, I pick the three or four that I think can make people billions of dollars in aggregate. I break down Dots, OpenAI's personal agent platform, plus the Decisions API, the Agents API with computer use, and Sign in with ChatGPT. I also share my four-step framework for building in this world and two business ideas I hope someone takes. If you want to build a business and make money around AI, this episode is for you. Timestamps 00:00 – Intro 01:48 – Dots, the Personal Agent Platform 03:29 – OpenAI Doubles Down on Plugins 05:02 – Decisions API 06:43 – Agents API With Computer Use 08:01 – Sign In With ChatGPT 12:36 – Where should you build? 13:46 – Idea: Real-World Work APIs 15:04 – Idea: Analytics for Agent Discovery 17:05 –Closing Thoughts Key Points Dots gives plugin builders a front door to 1.2 billion weekly active users. OpenAI is doubling down on plugins to make ChatGPT the app ecosystem for AI. Sign in with…

In this solo episode, I break down the $5 trillion wave of small businesses set to change hands as their owners retire, and why AI agents make this wave a real opening for solo founders. I walk through how Thrive Holdings and General Catalyst buy accounting firms, property managers, and support centers, then run AI agents inside them to lift margins. Then I show how I'd run a one-person holding company: the folder structure, the agent files, the human approval rule, and my average week. I close with the strongest arguments against AI roll-ups, including the one I take most seriously. Timestamps 00:00 – Intro 01:52 – Why the $5 Trillion Shift Is Happening Now 04:52 – Examples: Thrive Holdings& General Catalyst 08:38 – The Fund Playbook 10:07 – The Small-Deal Gap 10:51 – The One-Person Holdco 14:23 – The Folder Structure 16:47 – The Agent Pipeline 18:38 – Inside a Reviewer Agent File 19:41 – My Week Running the Holdco 21:49 – How to Land the First Business 22:24 – Arguments Against AI Roll-Ups 27:43 – Closing…

In this solo episode, I break down the huge business opportunity because Meta has opened Muse, its personal AI agent, to developers. You can now submit a connector, which lets Muse use your service when someone asks it for help, and I think this could be the app store moment for AI. I explain how a connector works, share four startup ideas you can build on one, and cover how to get customers beyond Meta's directory. I also show how I'd build a first version with a coding agent like Claude Code or Codex, and what I'd test before submitting it to Meta for review. Timestamps 00:00 – Intro 01:35 – The App Store Parallel 04:55 – How a Muse Connector Works 07:29 – Startup Idea 1: Lead Gen for Business Suppliers 09:28 – Startup Idea 2: Home Repair Dispatch 11:07 – Startup Idea 3: Paddle Match and Court Finder 12:47 – Startup Idea 4: Family Dinner Planning 14:10 – How to pick an idea? 14:56 – How People Find Your Connector 15:32 – Growth Idea 1: Partner With Creators 16:17 – Growth Idea 2: Product-Led Sharing 17:46…

Get Your Complete Financial OS at https://startup-ideas-pod.link/brex_SIP In this episode I speak with Nicholas Cole about the real value of everything you write on the internet. Cole has 15 years of experience as a nonfiction writer and ghostwriter, and he runs the SaaS platform Typeshare. He gives me a simple model with three tiers of content: commodity, personality, and original. He also explains the digital brain, which he calls your personal language model, and he shows how AI repeats your approved language at scale. By the end, you know how to judge the short, medium, and long-term value of a piece before you write it. Start Writing Online In 30 Days: https://startup-ideas-pod.link/ship30 Timestamps 00:00:00 – Intro 00:03:36 – POV is the Moat 00:05:40 – Language As Open Source 00:11:24 – Value Is Relative To The Reader 00:14:26 – Approved Language 00:17:43 – The Value of AI in Writing 00:22:09 – Commodity Ideas 00:24:23 – How To Set Up The System 00:27:58 – Ownership IS Association 00:33:56 – Build…

In this episode, I talk with Ryan Vogel about Jev, a new type of AI built for classification. Ryan shows how Jev takes an input plus an output schema and returns a probability for each choice in about 200 milliseconds. He demos Jev sorting 1,700 emails for 18 cents total, then covers lead scoring, support routing, video clipping, and browser control. I push him on the startup angle: find a business with an expensive queue of incoming information and put Jev at the front of it. You leave with a clear mental model, real use cases, and a simple way to try it today. Links Mentioned: Jev/Typeface AI: https://typesafe.ai AI Gateway: https://vercel.com/ai-gateway Timestamps 00:00 – Intro 02:27 – What Jev Is and Why It Matters 04:32 – Email Triage Demo 07:19 – Jev as an AI Decision Maker 15:46 – How to Use Jev in a Business 20:48 – Startup Idea: Local Services Matching and Instant Quotes 22:51 – Use Case 1: Bitcoin Signal Test and Limits 24:03 – Use Case 2: Auto-Clipping Long Videos 25:27 – Use Case 3: Browser…

I sit down with Remy to go through Instinct, the new invite-only personal agent that runs inside iMessage. Remy shares his raw chat history on screen: a haircut booking in Copenhagen, a restaurant reservation, a Bali visa on arrival, and an Emirates Skywards sign-up. We cover the parts that impress us, the points where the agent hits a wall, and the privacy questions that stay open. By the end of this episode you understand what Instinct does today, and you get fresh ideas for personal agents in general. Timestamps 00:00 – Intro 02:08 – Instinct Pros 11:18 – Instinct Cons 13:16 – Simple Onboarding 15:19 – Tools and Connectors 17:43 – Example 1: Booking a Haircut in Copenhagen 20:24 – Example 2: Restaurant Booking and Calendar Entry 23:03 – Example 3: Bali Visa on Arrival and Emirates Skywards 26:00 – Closing Thoughts Key Points Instinct hides the agent complexity behind a phone number and iMessage, so a first-time user starts in seconds. Remy gets it to book a haircut, hold a restaurant table, file a Bali…

Get Your Complete Financial OS at https://startup-ideas-pod.link/brex_SIP I welcome Ras Mic back to the pod to explain the phrase "software factory." Mic shares his screen and walks through the exact system that he runs today. His factory has four steps: isolate, build, prove, and ship. He keeps the whole system in five or six markdown files, so it works with any model and any harness. By the end of this episode, you can boot up your own factory, run many agents in parallel, and trust the code that comes back. Create your own Software Factory: https://startup-ideas-pod.link/ras-software-factory Timestamps 00:00 – Intro 02:17 – Software Factory Definition 03:44 – Why the Software Factory Matters 05:23 – Step 1: Isolate With Git Work Trees 11:34 – Step 2: Build With the Code Structure Skill 14:48 – Step 3: Prove With Evidence-Driven Testing 22:25 – Step 4: Ship With Grep Loop and Greptile 26:52 – The Physical Factory Analogy 29:21 – A Software Factory Is Markdown Files 30:02 – Closing Thoughts Key Points A…

I talk with Ras Mic about GPT-6 Astra. We skip the game demos and the 3D toys, and we focus on use cases to earn money or improve products. I share 9 Astra prompts that I posted publicly, and Greg Brockman reposted. Ras then shows his hardware project: he moved from a speaker idea to a parts list, a Blender layout, and merged code in about 30 minutes. The takeaway is simple: use this model for the ideas that felt too large for you last year. Timestamps 00:00 – Intro 01:53 – Astra Overview 04:14 – 9 Astra Prompts 11:48 – Jarvis Speaker Idea 16:21 – Think Bigger with Astra 18:29 – Vibe Coding to Vibe Manufacturing 21:16 – Closing Thoughts Key Points Astra costs more per task, and it uses fewer steps, so the value per dollar stays high. A performance audit moved one of Ras’s apps from 800 ms to 20–30 ms. A security audit on his live payments app found real risks in production. Ras went from a speaker idea to a $561 parts order and a merged pull request in about 30 minutes. Ras’s point: intelligence keeps…

I run this episode solo. I explain local AI in plain terms: the model runs on hardware I control, and a cloud model runs somewhere else. I map the four pieces of the local AI landscape — the model, the warehouse, the software, and the workflow — and I define the words that beginners meet first: parameters, tokens, context window, quantization, and GGUF. I walk through the Google open model stack (Gemma 4, Google AI Edge, LiteRT-LM, AI Edge Gallery), compare the other open model families, and show three ways to run a model today. I close with a first workflow you can copy and three startup ideas that use local AI as the wedge. And a special thank you to Google for supporting the podcast. Timestamps 00:00 – Intro 01:35 – The Open Model the Landscape 03:09 – Vocab Decoder 06:48 – Google Gemma Clearly Explained 10:29 – Other Open Model Families 14:20 – Path 1: Run Gemma in LM Studio 18:17 – Path 2: Ollama 20:15 – Path 3: Google AI Edge 21:07 – Hardware Cheat Sheet 21:52 – First Workflow to Build 22:47 –…

On this solo episode, I review five free, open source GitHub repos that help you build products, make money, or save time: Peter Yang's No AI Slop Skill, the CRM by TryComp AI, Video Use by browser use, SkillSpector by NVIDIA, and Phone Harness. For each repo I explain what it does, why it matters, how to install it, and the first small workflow to try. I close with a simple three-step method: install the repo, make one small workflow work, then decide to productize it or keep it as your own leverage. Timestamps 00:00 – Intro 01:44 – Repo 1: No AI Slop 05:20 – Repo 2: Agentic-first CRM 10:52 – Repo 3: Video Use 15:15 – Repo 4: SkillSpector 18:49 – Repo 5: Phone Harness 22:25 – Closing Thoughts Links to repos: petergyang/no-ai-slop — https://github.com/petergyang/no-ai-slop trycompai/crm — https://github.com/trycompai/crm browser-use/video-use — https://github.com/browser-use/video-use NVIDIA SkillSpector — https://github.com/NVIDIA/SkillSpector phone-harness — https://github.com/ShawnPana/phone-harness The…

In this solo episode I explain a role that I call the marketing engineer. I believe this person becomes one of the most valuable hires in tech in the next 18 to 24 months. I define the job, I show the four eras of marketing that lead to it, and I give the tool stack that makes it work. I use a commercial HVAC software company as a worked example, and I list six systems that a marketing engineer builds. I close with four ways to earn money from this skill and a 30-day plan to learn it. Timestamps: 00:00 – Intro 01:46 – The Evolution of Marketing 04:29 – What is a marketing engineer 07:19 – Build the Growth OS 10:18 – Marketing Engineer Tool stack 13:23 – Live Data Workflow 14:32 – Agent Job Description 16:56 – Example: vertical SaaS for HVAC contractors 18:27 – System 1: Customer Truth 20:20 – System 2 - 4: Founder content, Outbound signal and Creative Testing 23:31 – System 5: AI search visibility and the growth cockpit 24:19 – System 6: Eval Loop 25:06 – Ways to Monetize 29:41 – The 30-day plan 32:24 –…

Vinny is back on the pod, and he explains WebMCP. WebMCP puts MCP tools inside the browser UI, so any agent that you bring can read a page and act on it. Vinny demos an espresso gear store where his agent compares two machines, checks the counter width, matches accessories, adds an item to the cart, and applies a coupon. Together we map the agent-native options, from headless APIs to in-app agents, and we place WebMCP in the middle of that map. I close the episode with two cash-flowing business ideas that a semi-technical founder can start today. Timestamps 00:00 – Intro 02:28 – WebMCP Clearly Explained 07:22 – Demo: Conditional Tools And Browser Session Login 09:11 – The Agent-Native Paradigm 12:12 – How Agents Interact with Apps 16:05 – Demo: Accessories, Cart, And Coupons 18:42 – Where WebMCP fits 21:03 – Startup Idea 1: WebMCP Conversion Agency 24:27 – Startup Idea 2: Agent Mystery Shopper 26:11 – Closing Thoughts Key Points WebMCP makes a website agent-readable and agent-actionable through a short,…

On this week’s SIP Live we dive deep on the X timeline to give each post a sip or a skip, and we answer questions from the chat. This episode covers AI-native operations, a baby food app that earns a million dollars a month, iMessage agents, human customer support as a brand advantage, small teams, reading habits, and sales advice for builders. Listeners get concrete first steps, business ideas they can copy today, and two clear opinions on each take. Timestamps 00:00 – Intro 00:59 – Where an AI-Native Company Starts 04:48 – The $1M-a-Month Baby Food App 10:31 – An App Store for iMessage Agents 16:32 – Customer Support Is Eating Engineering 23:38 – RIP to the 2-Pizza Team 26:36 – Paul Graham on Reading as an Advantage 33:31 – The Worst Moves for 2026 37:01 – From Designer to Salesperson Key Points Make the company legible first: keep meeting notes and SOPs in files that an LLM can read. Let the team explore AI tools freely, then ask one department, such as admin, to lead. A million-dollar-a-month app leaves…

I sit down with Billy Howell for an inside look at a real business that runs on Grok Bot agent teams. Billy tests hundreds of tools for The Rundown, and he uses Grok Bot to run his local newsletter, The Arlington Bagel, which goes to 6,000 readers every Thursday. He walks me through his chief of staff bot, his research and sales agents, and the routines that move work forward while he sleeps. We cover the token math, the four-week plan he follows, and the business models that fit this tool best: newsletters, directories, and Shopify stores. You leave with a setup you can copy for one project this month. Timestamps 00:00 – Intro 02:22 – Grok Bot Overview 03:12 – What makes GrokBot special 06:09 – Pick one project 08:09 – Creating your initial agent team 11:19 – First week sprint with Grok Bot 13:06 – Automated Routines within Grok Bot 15:51 – Agent Org Structure 17:35 – Best Practices for building Agents 19:45 – Newsletter playbook 21:12 – Plugins 22:24 – Newsletter playbook pt 2 25:43 – Sales agent 29:06 –…

Get Your Complete Financial OS at https://startup-ideas-pod.link/brex_SIP I talk with Remy, known online as AI with Remy, about agent skills and how to share them across a whole team. Remy explains that a skill is an SOP for AI: a markdown file that teaches Claude your exact way to do a task. He then shows his system. He keeps his team skills in one GitHub repository, and he installs that repository as a plugin in Claude Code and Codex. The result is one source of truth, automatic updates for everyone, version control, and company ownership of the work. Listen to this episode if you run daily tasks with agents and you want your whole team to get the same quality of output. Remy’s prompt + skill setup: https://startup-ideas-pod.link/Remy-skills Timestamps 00:00 – Intro 02:33 – Skills as SOPs for AI 04:27 – How the agent uses skills 05:13 – AI is single player 06:21 – Example Skills: Notion, Brand Voice, Email 08:07 – How to share skills 11:40 – What is a Plugin? 14:58 – Anatomy of a Plugin 15:30 – Version…

Get Claude Code: https://startup-ideas-pod.link/claude-greg In this solo episode I lay out the exact system I use to turn Claude Code into what I call an AI employee. My premise is simple: give Claude the same things you would give a person joining your company (a workspace, memory, a brief, a clear ticket, eyes, review, a schedule, and permissions). I build the whole setup live around a real idea I found on ideabrowser.com , a missed-lead responder for med spas, and I share the specific prompts I use at each step. By the end, the product, the customer feedback, the docs, the demos, the reviews, and the recurring work all live inside one operating loop. I close with a seven-day plan you can run at your own pace. And thank you to Claude and Anthropic for supporting the podcast. Setup Claude Code to be your 24/7 employee: https://startup-ideas-pod.link/Claude-code Timestamps 00:00 – Intro: The AI Employee Map 05:47 – Step 1: Creating The Workspace In Claude Desktop 14:53 – Step 2: The Brief And Plan Mode 18:08…

I sit down with Allie K. Miller to talk about the shift from managing AI agents to enabling them. Allie runs a workforce of 34 AI agents led by an AI chief of staff named Simon, plus six directors named after Friends characters. She shares her three-word prompt, her daily AI diary, her AI watchdogs, and her rule to build the factory before the product. We then debate the future of software: why enterprises still want a vendor to call, and why consumer software now rewards taste and distribution. Listeners leave with one mindset shift and a first step they can finish in under three hours. Get Your Complete Financial OS at https://startup-ideas-pod.link/brex_SIP Timestamps 00:00 – Intro 02:29 – Become a Great Agent Manager 04:49 – The Three-Word Prompt 08:12 – The Pyramid of Proactivity 12:23 – Making the Company Queryable 19:14 – How to Design an AI Workforce 22:25 – AI as a Watchdog 24:56 – Startup Opportunities 26:29 – Build the Factory, Then the Product 30:09 – The SaaS Question 34:53 – Consumer Software…

In this solo episode I break down Cloudflare's AI agent announcement in plain English and explain why I see it as the new business model for the internet. I walk through AI crawl control, pay per crawl, the monetization gateway, and the x402 payment rail, and I show how a single request turns into a transaction. From there I give three startup ideas built directly on top of this shift: a niche data refinery, agent readiness for businesses, and expert archives turned into agent tools. For each idea I lay out the wedge, the first customer, the first version, and how I would sell it. My core claim: the internet is moving from pages humans visit to resources agents use, and the builders who move now own the doors. Timestamps 00:00 – Intro 01:01 – The Old Paradigm of the Internet 02:57 – The New Paradigm of the Internet 03:41 – What Cloudflare is actually doing 06:33 – An AI Index for all our customers 07:34 – The Agent Internet Stack 09:09 – Why Now Is the Best Time to Build 10:29 – Startup Idea 1: The Niche…

I bring Cody Schneider back on the show to build two marketing agents end to end, live. The first one monitors LinkedIn posts from creators in your category, scrapes everyone who engages, waterfalls those profiles into emails and phone numbers, and then runs cold email and LinkedIn DMs with an agent managing the replies. The second one turns internal conversations, sales calls, and podcast transcripts into a daily organic LinkedIn content engine across an entire team. Cody names every tool in the stack, shares the real infrastructure costs, and shows the actual terminal commands he runs in Claude Code. By the end you have two systems you can go set up today for your startup. Timestamps 00:00 – Intro 02:27 – Agent Number One: Cold Outbound Agent 04:26 – Finding Creators in Your Category on LinkedIn 09:09 – Apify Explained and the API Maestro Actors 10:59 – Extracting Engagers Live in Claude Code 12:59 – Agent Versus Automation 15:45 – Waterfall Enrichment: GitLeads, Apollo, Origami 17:13 – Compliance, Data…

I go solo on this one to break down graph engineering, the term I keep seeing go viral on X. I define it in plain English: prompt engineering is how you ask AI a better question, context engineering is how you give AI better information, and graph engineering is how you design the work around the AI so it lives as a managed workflow instead of one giant chat. I walk through the vocabulary (jobs, arrows, state), separate knowledge graphs from agent graphs, and run a full worked example on whether to launch an AI bookkeeping product for Shopify merchants. Then I show three levels of implementation, from manual lanes on a whiteboard up to LangGraph and n8n, plus ready-made graphs for support, content, and code. You leave with a repeatable way to turn one AI workflow you already run into a map of steps, checks, handoffs, loops, and human approvals. Timestamps 00:00 – Intro 01:24 – Prompt Engineering, Context Engineering, Graph Engineering 02:50 – Chat vs Graph 03:35 – Defining Terms and Workflows 06:44 –…

I sit down with Vinny for a live tour of Buzz, an open source, agent-native chat app from Block built on an open protocol. Vinny makes the case that openness is the real story here: agents arrive as first-class teammates, the harness underneath each agent swaps freely between Claude Code, Codex, Goose, and open code, and your entire chat context travels with you through every swap. He demos real output, including a CRM app built with the Wasp full stack framework and deployed to Railway, plus a tweet leaderboard that pipes daily stats back into a channel through a public API. I press him for the honest state of the software and for the setup advice he actually uses day to day. By the end I share where I land on Buzz versus Slack, and why I think anyone building right now gains from putting their hands on tools like this. Timestamps 00:00 – Intro 02:57 – Agents as First-Class Team Members 03:49 – Swappable Harnesses Under Any Agent 06:55 – Audio Huddles With Agents 08:34 – Git, Feature Branches, and Parallel…

Cody Schneider is back on the podcast, and I ask him to lay out what a real marketing agent looks like once you get past the hype. He draws a hard line: an agent owns unified business data, runs on a cadence, and improves from the results it reads back. We use one concrete business as the sandbox — an AI-first product built on top of WordPress — and Cody walks the entire stack behind a Facebook ads agent that researches pain points, generates static and video creative, publishes through the Facebook Marketing API, kills the losers, and promotes the winners. You leave with a business idea, the exact infrastructure list, and the tools we use to run it today. Timestamps: 00:00 – Intro 01:54 – Defining a Marketing Agent 04:00 – Startup Idea: AI for WordPress 07:27 – AI-First Plugin Ideas: Yoast, WPForms, WooCommerce, Akismet 09:55 – The current state of Meta Ads 12:48 – Bundling the Stack and Choosing Channels 15:23 – Two creative pipelines: static and video 17:25 – The Data pipeline and warehouse 24:11 – Ad…

I welcome Ryan Carson back to the show to turn anyone into a world-class agent operator. Ryan spent 25 years founding companies, scaled Treehouse to around 110 employees and a million learners, and now runs Untangle, an AI divorce agent for family law firms, as a team of one while his revenue tracks toward 4x this month. He walks me through his full stack: running cloud agents in parallel, building automations that watch production and improve themselves, and shipping 22 to 40 PRs a day, often from his phone. We also get into keeping token costs sane through model routing and building a durable reputation by sharing your work on X. By the end, listeners hold a clear playbook to run agents, automate the busywork, and ship faster. Timestamps 00:00 – Intro 01:43 – The New Agent Paradigm 04:24 – Inside Ryan’s eight-screen desk setup 07:23 – Why Devin and cloud agents 10:00 – Everyone Is Now a Manager of Agents 13:15 – Local vs Virtual Development 14:50 – Agent Management System 24:22 – 3 Automations to build…

I sit down with Vas from Varick Agents to map out exactly how to break into AI forward deployed engineering — and how to grow into a sharper FDE — in thirty days. We start from a single premise: every company can now buy the same frontier intelligence, so the real advantage moves to deployment. Vas traces the role back to Palantir, explains the judgment that decides where AI belongs, and lays out the audit → evals → deployment loop that turns raw models into measurable business value. He then hands over a full 30-day plan to build, harden, measure, and defend a production-grade agent, so you can do the job before you hold the title. The whole conversation stays tactical and grounded, with clear examples I can apply today. The FDE Blueprint: https://startup-ideas-pod.link/fde-starter Timestamps 00:00 – Intro 02:03 – What is an FDE 04:09 – How Palantir Popularized FDEs 06:16 – Deciding Where Intelligence Belongs 11:26 – What FDEs Earn 14:59 – Two Kinds of Judgment: Communication and Engineering 17:38 – How the…

In this episode I sit down with Corey Ganim to unpack what he calls the simplest way to earn money with AI in 2026: a $999 AI Tools Assessment for small business owners. Corey lays out his entire four-phase system, from a probing discovery call through an AI-assisted analysis in Claude, a stupid-simple client report, and a review call that turns roughly half of clients into implementation buyers. We walk through his full upsell menu, seven client-acquisition methods that run on zero capital and zero audience, and his AI Concierge retainer that earns him about $1,000 an hour. Anyone listening leaves with a copy-and-paste playbook they can adapt to their own city or industry. Checkout Corey’s AI Audit Template: https://startup-ideas-pod.link/ai_audit Timestamps 00:00 – Intro and the episode promise 03:48 – The full playbook preview 06:39 – Phase 1: the discovery call 08:27 – Phase 2: AI Analysis 12:11 – Phase 3: The Report 22:24 – Tool and Model Selection 23:39 – Phase 4: The Review Call 26:15 – The Upsell…

I sit down with Elie Steinbock to unpack loop engineering and how to run a business on loops. We start with the roots of the idea in the lean startup and Toyota's manufacturing, then move into practical, copy-ready workflows for SEO, Facebook ads, and product feedback. Elie walks through a live Google Search Console example on Draft Fantasy and shows how to set up an SEO loop that runs once a month for years. The core promise for listeners: hand repeatable business work to an AI agent that measures an objective metric and improves over time. By the end, you know how loops work and how to launch your first one today. Timestamps 00:00 – Intro and episode promise 02:54 – What is Loop Engineering 06:51 – Loops with AI agents: build and verify 11:17 – Example of Loop: SEO as an objective-metric loop 15:29 – Setting up the SEO loop and tools 25:27 – Cost and token economics 29:05 – The Paid ads loop 33:10 – The product feedback loop 36:25 – A minimal viable loop for every channel 39:21 – Closing Thoughts Key…

In this episode I bring Nick Vasilescu, co-founder of Orgo, back on the show to unpack the buzz around Grok 4.5. Nick makes the case for treating Grok 4.5 as a genuine AI co-founder inside harnesses like Hermes and OpenClaw, and he proves it live: spinning up cloud computers, wiring in tools, and building a full startup from idea to landing page to outreach. We race Grok 4.5 against GPT 5.6 Sol, tour Nick's agent stack, and talk through the cost paradox of a model this fast and cheap. Listeners walk away with a concrete playbook for standing up their own always-on agent today. Get Nick’s Agent Template Stack: https://startup-ideas-pod.link/nicks-stack Timestamps 00:00 – Intro 01:40 – Why Grok 4.5 release matters 03:39 – Automation versus a co-founder 05:16 – Setting up Hermes and Grok 4.5 on Orgo 09:01 – Why Orgo to manage Agents 11:23 – Grok 4.5 Cost discussion 14:02 – Grok 4.5 Fast Execution and Unlock 16:20 – The Agent tool belt 19:13 – X MCP for trends 20:37 – vidIQ for outliers and thumbnails 22:11 –…

In this episode I sit down with Dan Shipper to see how he runs his work and personal life on OpenAI's Codex Desktop with the 5.6 model. He walks through his card-based email setup, daily feeds for his company and Slack, and the in-app browser that lets his agent collaborate with him inside tools like Proof. We build a small SaaS app live, called Turnaround, and use it to explore why maintenance is the real product in the AI era and where Codex-native software heads next. Along the way Dan shares his pirates-versus-architects framing, his approach to fine-tuning a copy-editing model, and the patterns — pulses, Mailroom, and router threads — that hold his system together. The throughline: pick one simple win, let context do the heavy lifting, and manage the system instead of running every task by hand. Learn how to get customers with AI Agents: https://startup-ideas-pod.link/GTM-agents-IB Timestamps 00:00 – Intro 01:16 – Codex and GPT-5.6 Overview 03:40 – Training your own model: the step after skills 04:49 –…

In this solo episode I lay out why I believe building agents is the new SaaS: software is shifting from helping you do the work to doing the work with you. I walk through a full playbook — find a niche, pick a workflow with a paycheck attached, shadow the human, spec the agent, build the minimum useful version, sell a pilot like labor, then productize the repeatable parts. I share live market examples like Slang AI for restaurants and Same Day for home services, plus pricing models and a distribution strategy built on workflow teardowns. I close with a 30-day, zero-to-100 plan for launching an agent-first business. This one is for anyone eager to build with AI or simply become more productive. Timestamps 00:00 – Intro 01:38 – Building Agents is the new SaaS 04:11 – Pick a valuable workflow 06:12 – Shadow the Human First 09:34 – Build the Minimum Useful Agent 12:50 – The wrapper makes it SaaS 15:50 – Sell the Pilot Like Labor (and Pricing) 18:37 – Own the workflow 21:45 – The Zero-to-100 Plan in 30 Days 24:14…

In this solo episode, I lay out the six skills I believe stay valuable as AI grows more capable. I chose these six because each one is open to anyone, each one starts this weekend, and each one rises in value as AI improves. I walk through agents and local models, distribution, robotics, curation, the builder distributor, and IRL community building, with one concrete first rep for every skill. My goal is to hand you one simple, clear map of where the world is heading and exactly how to begin. Timestamps 00:00 – Intro 00:57 – Skill 1: Running AI Agents and Local Models 04:51 – Skill 2: Marketers Who Build Distribution 09:03 – Skill 3: Robotics Engineers Who Build and Source Hardware 14:29 – Skill 4: Curators Who Yap and Make Short-Form Video 19:05 – Skill 5: The Builder Distributor 23:11 – Skill 6: IRL Community Builders 27:34 – Build Your Skill Stack Key Points I chose these six skills because each one rises in value as AI improves. Skill 1 is the grown-up version of prompt engineering: I design an AI worker…

In this episode I sit down with Amir to get tactical about running local AI models as part of a daily workflow. We center on GLM 5.2 from ZAI, how it stacks up against frontier models like Opus 4.8, and how a fusion approach lets you sequence a heavy thinking model with a lighter execution model for the best output at the lowest cost. Amir walks through setup in Cursor and Codex via OpenRouter, shares real token-cost math, and demos GLM 5.2 refining a live app. By the end you will know how to start today, where local models shine, and how model chaining keeps spend in check. Timestamps 00:00 – Intro 02:09 – GLM 5.2 and Z AI 04:01 – Specs: 1M context and Terminal Bench 2.1 05:22 – Making sense of benchmark scores 06:42 – Setup in Cursor or Codex with OpenRouter 10:18 – Local model upside: buy a machine, run tasks 11:42 – Token cost: 44 cents versus $2.38 13:36 – Future-proofing with an upfront hardware bet & The Uber subsidy analogy 16:49 – Model chaining and the vision workaround 19:23 – Token maxing vs…

In this episode I sit down with George Lampropoulos, a 19-year-old founder who turns AI-built mobile apps into real revenue. George walks through his framework for reaching $10K a month—roughly $333 a day—starting with a simple, sellable idea you actually care about and ending with a distribution plan anyone can run. He shares the numbers behind WrestleAI (100K-plus downloads and close to $200K in revenue) and explains why a sharp "gotcha feature" and a clean Instagram funnel do most of the heavy lifting. We also dig into closing influencers, hiring a VA, running paid ads, and reading the metrics that decide whether you grow. If you want a practical, founder-tested playbook for building apps with AI, this one delivers. George’s $10K/mo app playbook: https://startup-ideas-pod.link/George-app-playbook Timestamps 00:00 – Intro 01:54 – George's track record with WrestleAI 02:36 – How AI unlocks fresh app ideas 06:29 – Reverse-engineering a viral idea from your feed 16:16 – Designing the UI/UX of the app 17:49 –…

In this solo episode, I walk through the implications of the ban of Claude Fable 5 — the most powerful model on the planet and the one I planned to build with — after the US government sent Anthropic a letter. I make the case for local AI by walking through the benefits: intelligence that lives on your own hardware, stays private, runs free after the hardware cost, and keeps working through bans, outages, and price hikes. I lay out the exact order I'd learn it in — runtimes, model-to-hardware matching, quantization, and agents — and I name the specific tools and models I reach for. Then I hand you five startup ideas that exist precisely because intelligence now sits on your desk. The payoff for you is a clear plan to own a resilient layer of your stack starting this week. Timestamps 00:00 – Intro 01:20 – The Fable 5 Ban 02:31 – Renting Access vs. Owning Intelligence 03:41 – How a Local Model Works 07:19 – The Local Model Stack 08:45 – Match Model to Machine 10:45 – Pick Your Model (Qwen 3, DeepSeek, Gemma,…

Get my Fable 5 prompt pack: https://startup-ideas-pod.link/fable5-prompt-pack In this episode I break down how to get the most out of Fable 5, the most powerful model I've ever used. I move past the benchmarks and go straight into tactical use cases, copy-and-paste prompts, and startup ideas you can build today. I walk through tournaments for copy and landing pages, an interview-before-build workflow that hunts for product-market fit, and ways to point Fable at contracts, churn data, and years of your own notes. I close with three of my favorite startup ideas — a synthetic focus group firm, 48-hour custom software, and a contract refund firm — plus the exact prompts behind each. My goal here stays simple: leave you ready to build and earn with Fable 5 while it remains included in your plan. Timestamps 00:00 – Intro 02:22 – Anthropic Employee Edits a Launch Video With Fable 05:50 – Building an AI Content Engine 07:30 – Best way to configure Fable 5 08:42 – Prompt 1: Copywriting Tournament for Landing Pages…

S/o Coderabbit for sponsoring today’s vid: https://startup-ideas-pod.link/code-rabbit On this episode I sit down with Professor Ras Mic to break down agentic loops. We define what a loop is, explain why well-known builders like Boris and Peter swear by them, and stay honest about who they truly serve. Mic argues that human-in-the-loop remains the strongest setup today, and he walks through the one loop he runs every day for code review using Cursor, GitHub, and Greptile. By the end you will know when a loop earns its place and when your own hand belongs on the wheel. Timestamps 00:00 – Intro 01:23 – What is a Loop 07:59 – /goal Explained 11:32 – The Slop Machine 12:42 – Code Review as a use case for Agentic Loop 18:19 – Honest Take for Builders 20:42 – The Future of Loops 21:50 – Closing Thoughts Key Points A loop fires once from a human, then the agent generates, reviews its own result, and feeds it back to keep building. Human-in-the-loop keeps you directing, governing, and approving each step while the…

Become an AI Native Organization: https://startup-ideas-pod.link/ai-native-org In this episode I sit down with Theo to unpack what becoming AI native truly means. We define an AI native org as people managing agents, agents reading and writing to the company, and the company growing smarter over time. Theo opens his actual workflows, walking through a working prototype, an auto-generated client proposal microsite, and a live usability test that synthesizes feedback into a V2 in one session. We close with service-business startup ideas built on this same system, plus a free consultation offer for larger companies. For founders and operators, the value lands as a concrete playbook for turning speed into customer signal and a durable moat. Timestamps: 00:00 – Intro 04:09 – The Demis Hassabis origin story 06:53 – Defining AI Native Organization 08:19 – Mapping the system: people, agents, context 09:18 – Why people lead: strategy, taste, trust 13:23 – Agents: models using tools in a loop 16:12 – Evals and…

In this episode, I sit down with Alex Finn for a full, screen-shared walkthrough of Hermes Desktop, the new desktop home for the Hermes AI agent. I open with a clear challenge: by the end, sell me on installing Hermes Desktop, show me real ways to make money and stay productive, and explain his move from OpenClaw. Alex tours every major surface — sessions, profiles, artifacts, skills, cron jobs, and sub-agents — and shares money-saving tactics at each step. We close on the idea that matters most to me: aiming these agents at other people's challenges as the clearest path to real value. Timestamps 00:00 – Intro 04:04 – Sessions and Context Management 06:10 – Profiles Explained 08:49 – Model-Based vs Role-Based Profiles 12:58 – Artifacts as a Second Brain 14:32 – Why Alex Switched From OpenClaw 17:32 – Skills, Tools, and Tool Sets 19:19 – Messaging and Cron Setup 21:44 – Reverse Prompting and the Brain Dump 28:09 – Sub-Agents vs Profiles 32:12 – Putting It Together: Solving Challenges 32:38 – The Daily…

In this solo episode I walk through Codex Sites end to end, building a real internal tool live so you can copy the exact workflow. I open by comparing Codex Sites with one-prompt tools like Replit and Lovable, then construct a Startup Ideas OS board in six prompts. Along the way I cover memory and persistent storage, safe actions, Codex skills, save-gates, and proving the loop so the app updates autonomously. The core promise: by the end you know how to ship a Codex Site that an agent keeps operating for you. This one suits builders who already live in Codex and want self-updating products. Timestamps 00:00 – Intro and Episode Agenda 01:17 – Codex Sites vs Replit and Lovable 04:33 – The Build Plan: Startup Ideas OS 05:08 – Prompt 1: Build the Shell with Sites 07:02 – Plugins Worth Using and Game Studio 08:54 – First Board Review 09:21 – Prompt 2: Add Memory and Show the Data Model 10:56 – Prompt 3: Create Safe Actions 13:25 – Prompt 4: Create the Startup Ideas Admin Skill 14:51 – Prompt 5: Save-Gate and…

In this solo episode, I break down the shift from a human-first internet to an agent-first one, where AI agents become the customers that discover, evaluate, pay, and recommend. I map the agent buying journey and the new infrastructure agents need: identity, tools, an inbox, memory, a wallet, and receipts. I ground it with concrete examples like AgentMail and Stripe's agent wallet, then show how to make your website agent-readable through structured docs, schemas, MCP tools, and executable actions. I close with rapid-fire startup ideas and my big prediction for the next ten years: build startups for agents. Timestamps: 00:00 – Intro 00:49 – The tweet: build startups for agents 01:47 – Old web vs. agent web 02:24 – The agent buying journey 04:38 – What agents need: identity, tools, inbox, memory, wallet, receipts 05:30 – Examples: AgentMail, Stripe agent wallet, support, procurement, MCP, travel agent 08:24 – Building an agent-readable website 09:31 – What does this change for Startups 11:55 – Rapid-fire…