#58: Greg Isenberg on AI Co-Founders, the Multi-Preneur, and Why Anyone Can Build a Startup Now — Transcript
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- 0:00So I believe that this like builder
- 0:02distributor combo is
- 0:06is probably the most lethal type of
- 0:09person in the AI age because they they
- 0:13understand distribution. They understand
- 0:15how to capture attention and how to
- 0:17convert that attention [music] into
- 0:20uh revenue but they also understand how
- 0:22they [music] can drive value from a
- 0:24product perspective. The product has to
- 0:26be good and the [music] bar for good
- 0:29products is increasing and increasing
- 0:30especially when it comes to digital
- 0:32products
- 0:42>> this episode is brought to you by Google
- 0:44for startups.
- 0:46Today we're in Aventura, [music] Florida
- 0:48with Greg Eisenberg, one of the sharpest
- 0:50voices helping builders understand the
- 0:53next great [music] shift in startups,
- 0:54AI, and the internet. Greg's career has
- 0:57been built on one rare skill, seeing
- 0:59where the internet is moving before the
- 1:01market catches [music] up. He created
- 1:03Five, which was acquired by Stumble
- 1:05Upon, and he built islands, which was
- 1:07acquired [music] by Weiwork. That
- 1:08pattern recognition took him from
- 1:10founder to trusted adviser where he's
- 1:12met with [music] some of the biggest and
- 1:13best companies in the world helping them
- 1:15on their strategies around AI. Today he
- 1:17leads late checkout portfolio of AI
- 1:20native businesses powered by agents and
- 1:22internet communities through idea
- 1:23browser Greg's letter and the startup
- 1:26idea podcast. [music]
- 1:27He shared over 2,000 startup ideas and
- 1:30built an audience of millions [music] of
- 1:31followers. Hope you enjoy our
- 1:33conversation. We're in
- 1:36July 2026. What are the biggest shifts
- 1:40you're seeing in AI right now at this
- 1:43moment? I couldn't be more excited with
- 1:45like what's happening right now? So, I
- 1:47just spent all morning playing with
- 1:49Grock 4.5
- 1:52and I sort of I dismissed
- 1:55Grock. I was just like, "Okay, it's an
- 1:58open AI anthropic Google world." Like, I
- 2:01didn't I've never even thought about
- 2:02Grock. But I started playing with this
- 2:04model. I connected it to my Hermes agent
- 2:06which I mean we can talk about this
- 2:08sorts of stuff but I had this basic I
- 2:10gave it to my personal assistant and I
- 2:12had it basically
- 2:15running 247. I said here's a startup
- 2:17idea. I want you to go and, you know,
- 2:21build features for it, optimize based on
- 2:24analytics, do SEO, um, and do all these
- 2:28things and run while I was sleeping
- 2:31basically and in the morning this
- 2:33morning. And seeing how capable it was
- 2:36and how good it was.
- 2:39I mean, it's incredible. Like, I'm
- 2:41sitting here. We're at the 38th floor
- 2:44looking at the ocean and I have a
- 2:48essentially AI co-founder that's
- 2:50working.
- 2:51>> I'm paying it like the equivalent of
- 2:53like $2 an hour or something
- 2:56>> and it's
- 2:59super intelligent and it's creating a
- 3:01startup for me while we're hanging out.
- 3:04Mhm.
- 3:04>> I mean, it's hard not to be extremely
- 3:09excited about building companies right
- 3:12now with AI. If I'm trying to get
- 3:15started,
- 3:17a lot of people talk about the idea and
- 3:19then there's also
- 3:21going after a business model that's
- 3:22already working. Where do you like to
- 3:24start or where do you advise people to
- 3:26start? Do I start with coming up with
- 3:28the right idea or do I should I look at
- 3:30the world and see what business models
- 3:31are working and try to iterate off of
- 3:33something that's already out there? I
- 3:34mean, I'm a big trend guy. So, I like to
- 3:37see how things are changing in the world
- 3:41and based on that go and create
- 3:43something to feed that problem. The
- 3:46beauty about the world we live in today
- 3:49is all the trend data is out there. You
- 3:53can see what people are tweeting about.
- 3:54You can see what posts are going viral.
- 3:56you can see what the search volume is.
- 3:57You can see what people are putting into
- 3:58chat GPT and what the LLM visibility is.
- 4:03So, if you're able to harness that data
- 4:05and basically have your agents tell you,
- 4:09hey, there's an opportunity to go and
- 4:12build um you know, a software company
- 4:15for South Florida dentists and it
- 4:17probably looks like this and it has
- 4:19these features, then I'm going to go and
- 4:22do that because I've got a validated
- 4:25startup idea. Mhm.
- 4:26>> You know, when I was younger, I would
- 4:30like how I came up with startup ideas
- 4:32was would be like I don't know, you have
- 4:33a glass of wine, you go for a walk on
- 4:35the beach, and then and you kind of wait
- 4:37for this perfect moment and you're like,
- 4:40"Oh my god, I have this idea." And you
- 4:41write it down and you tell all your
- 4:44friends and and you fall in love with
- 4:47the startup idea. And as I've gotten
- 4:49older, I've realized that the businesses
- 4:51that have worked the best for me have
- 4:53been ones that have been validated based
- 4:55on data. Not validated based on like how
- 4:58I was feeling at 6:32 p.m. I had the
- 5:00wine was hitting me at a particular
- 5:02time. The sun was, you know, hitting me
- 5:04at a particular time and it just
- 5:06something hit like that. No, that's
- 5:09that's one way to do it. But if you are
- 5:12if your goal is to create a startup with
- 5:14the highest probability of success
- 5:16>> in the age of AI,
- 5:18>> I think the way to do it is to look at
- 5:21the trend data.
- 5:22>> So talk me through how you do that. So
- 5:24you're on you're on X. You're reading
- 5:27tweets post from the right people.
- 5:30You're what what else are you doing
- 5:32besides that? I mean, one way to do it
- 5:35is
- 5:37is exactly what you said, which is
- 5:38basically like you have a content diet.
- 5:41>> Yeah.
- 5:41>> You follow certain people on Instagram,
- 5:43you follow certain subreddits,
- 5:45um you
- 5:48you follow certain ex accounts, and
- 5:49based on what people are saying, you're
- 5:51able to deduce.
- 5:52>> You're kind of triangulating based on
- 5:53all these things.
- 5:54>> It's pretty manual,
- 5:56>> but you can do that, and it it works
- 5:58some sometimes.
- 6:00The second way is you connect a and this
- 6:04is you know we're getting into like a
- 6:06little technical but you connect an MCP
- 6:09to a codeex or a cloud code. Now what is
- 6:12an MCP? You know it's a fancy way of
- 6:15saying basically like an API or just
- 6:17plugging into another repository of data
- 6:22that is going to help you make that
- 6:25decision. For example, one MCP is the
- 6:29XMCP. So you can basically say you're
- 6:32using cloud code or codeex which are you
- 6:35know by codeex is by openai cloud code
- 6:38is by anthropic and they're basically
- 6:41this v this way to interact with those
- 6:43platforms. You can basically have it
- 6:47connect to X.com's MCP and you can say
- 6:50like you know every single day you know
- 6:52here's my niche give me trending you
- 6:55know tweets in these particular uh
- 6:58verticals and then you can have your LLM
- 7:01which is the super intelligence
- 7:03basically refine those ideas for you
- 7:06curate those ideas for you extract the
- 7:08pain points for those ideas for you give
- 7:11you new ideas based on on that and have
- 7:14it just send you a digest every single
- 7:16day.
- 7:17>> Um, and there's other MCPs you can use.
- 7:19You know, you can use I created my own
- 7:21MCP around startup ideas called idea
- 7:24browser. So, there's a bunch of MCPs
- 7:26that you
- 7:26>> people can just tap into that. Yeah,
- 7:28people can just tap into that. So, those
- 7:32are the two ways I would say like more
- 7:33manual first or more LLM first. when you
- 7:38talk and listen and what you're hearing
- 7:40people who are building trying to build
- 7:42a business who are trying to use AI what
- 7:44do you think most people are missing
- 7:46with the opportunity with AI
- 7:48>> I think a lot of people I mean it's July
- 7:512026 we've talked about it like if
- 7:54you're listening to this you've probably
- 7:56used AI
- 7:57>> sure but you probably
- 8:00have gotten some bad results from AI
- 8:03>> so the truth is
- 8:06AI I is only as good as the context you
- 8:09feed it. So what I think I think there's
- 8:13a lot of people that will have listened
- 8:15to this and be like, "Yeah, I tried AI
- 8:18to build a landing page and it looked
- 8:19ugly." Or, "I tried AI to come up with a
- 8:21startup idea and it was dumb." Or, "I
- 8:23tried AI to write a post and content and
- 8:27it sounded like AI."
- 8:29>> And that is because number one, you
- 8:32didn't give it the right context. You
- 8:34didn't connect it to the right MCP. You
- 8:36didn't say, "Hey, this is how I like to
- 8:39write and here's my framework for
- 8:43thinking about how I write or how I come
- 8:44up with startup ideas." And number two,
- 8:48you haven't shown them what does good
- 8:50look like. Mhm.
- 8:52>> So, when you hire a new employee, let's
- 8:55say it's a junior employee and maybe
- 8:57they're
- 8:58a social media manager, and their job is
- 9:02to write tweets and reply to tweets.
- 9:06If you're hiring this person, they're
- 9:07fresh out of school, for example, you
- 9:09might want to tell them, "Hey, this is
- 9:11what a super good tweet looks like.
- 9:14Here's what a good reply looks like."
- 9:16Yet, we we don't say that with LLMs for
- 9:19the most part. So the people who crush
- 9:22it with how to build with AI understand
- 9:25this context game and they understand
- 9:27this what does good look like game which
- 9:29in technical terms is called an eval
- 9:31which is means an evaluation. An eval
- 9:34basically says this is what good looks
- 9:36like
- 9:36>> and before you give me a result check or
- 9:41evaluate based on what I consider good.
- 9:45>> Yeah. such that uh like don't hand me
- 9:48something if it's going to be bad.
- 9:50Basically,
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- 10:20media guide.
- 10:23So recently I set up my whole workflow
- 10:27in co-work. I've got multiple inboxes.
- 10:30I've got all these social media accounts
- 10:33flowing in all of you know all this
- 10:35context around how I like to send emails
- 10:37and do emails. I've got all of my
- 10:38meetings flowing in from Zoom and other
- 10:41places. The whole thing took me like six
- 10:44hours to get set up and
- 10:48it it wasn't the most technical process,
- 10:50but it was still kind of a technical
- 10:52process. And I think when you say people
- 10:54aren't giving this their AI systems the
- 10:58context in some ways we just expect
- 10:59these things to happen because it seems
- 11:01like a some of it seems kind of obvious
- 11:03like don't send me a bad email. It's
- 11:06like you're exactly right like what is a
- 11:08bad email? You need to define that. But
- 11:10we kind of we kind of know what at least
- 11:13is a really bad email and sometimes, you
- 11:15know, it's it's spitting out really bad
- 11:16results. Do you think how far are we
- 11:19from that sort of
- 11:22s I mean slightly technical process
- 11:24being totally evaporated and just like
- 11:27the system's doing it or do you think
- 11:28like this is the way that if you're
- 11:30going to want to use AI properly in two,
- 11:32four, five years from now, you're still
- 11:34going to have to do all these kind of
- 11:36manual setups to like dial in your
- 11:38system. Is this just some way some thing
- 11:40you're just going to have to learn how
- 11:42to do and be great at and continue to
- 11:44refine over time or is it just going to
- 11:46figure it out? There's two types of work
- 11:49that exists. Yeah. Regular work and
- 11:52creative work. When it comes to regular
- 11:54work, for example, let's say SEO,
- 11:59you know, in the past, people have hired
- 12:01SEO agencies to do SEO. And what that
- 12:04meant was
- 12:06uh you had to create blog posts and you
- 12:08had to optimize the blog posts and you
- 12:10had to do a certain tasks certain set of
- 12:12tasks that were pretty binary because
- 12:15the result meant either you went up in
- 12:18Google, you went down in Google or you
- 12:19stayed the same. those tasks, those that
- 12:23work, those
- 12:26we're probably 12 to 18 months away from
- 12:30that being like pretty autonomous
- 12:33and
- 12:35is just going to do its own thing. The
- 12:37creative task like what we were talking
- 12:39about with tweets and maybe creating
- 12:42video content or branding or
- 12:46copywriting, things like that, there's
- 12:48some creative element that exists. when
- 12:51creativity is a part of it, even if it's
- 12:53just 1%. Um, there needs to be some
- 12:58human intervention. So, I think that
- 13:01from creative task perspective, we're
- 13:03never going to get to the place where
- 13:05this super intelligent thing is
- 13:08going
- 13:08>> reading your mind,
- 13:09>> reading your mind. There's always going
- 13:11to be place for art in society. And you
- 13:17can the counterargument to what I'm
- 13:19saying is is this. You know, you could
- 13:21say, well, if it's plugged into the
- 13:24human API, aka X and Instagram, like if
- 13:28you're getting all these posts from,
- 13:29let's say, MCPs and you're able to
- 13:30deduce what human beings want, can't it
- 13:34create creative on the fly? Um, and the
- 13:39thing about humans is we're we're kind
- 13:42of at least creative humans, we're kind
- 13:44of like punk rock and it's hard to pro
- 13:46it's hard to program that like punk rock
- 13:48nature to it. So I believe that and I'm
- 13:51a AI pled as it gets. Um,
- 13:55and I I advise the world's largest
- 13:58brands on the planet around, you know,
- 14:01getting their businesses
- 14:03to be AI native. So, I would be the
- 14:06first to tell you, hey, this is all
- 14:08going to be autonomous and creatives
- 14:12aren't going to exist. I see these
- 14:14people tweet, you know, you need to
- 14:18escape the permanent underclass and it's
- 14:20like I joke, I laugh at it cuz it's like
- 14:23there will always be space for
- 14:24creatives. Human beings will always be a
- 14:26part of it. That being said, the binary
- 14:29stuff will be autonomous for the most
- 14:32part. when you're talking to an
- 14:34established company or a team who's been
- 14:36working in a certain way for 5, 10, 20,
- 14:4150 years and now all of a sudden it's
- 14:43like this reinvention of work. What do
- 14:46you tell people to start to really make
- 14:50a significant shift in that way? Not
- 14:53just, hey, sign up for Chat GBT, but
- 14:55like change the way you work in an
- 14:58environment, in a culture that has been
- 15:00doing it a different way for a long
- 15:02time. It always starts with like, what
- 15:04would you do if you unlocked five or 10
- 15:06or 15 hours of your week back? You know,
- 15:08like you've got all these jobs to be
- 15:10done that you've been doing and what if
- 15:12you can automate 60% of it? What are the
- 15:14things that you would wish you can do
- 15:17that you don't have time to be doing
- 15:20today? And that's you you actually see
- 15:24people's face light up when when they
- 15:27hear that because they're like, you know
- 15:28what, I always wish I can do this thing,
- 15:30but I just find Yeah. Oh my god, I can't
- 15:33believe it's Friday already. I guess
- 15:34I'll do it next week and then it's
- 15:35Friday again and then it's Friday again.
- 15:37They never get to do it. So, I think
- 15:39what we're going to I think what we're
- 15:40there's this narrative that like all
- 15:42jobs are going away. Uh AI is eating our
- 15:45jobs. I think we're actually moving into
- 15:47a world where people are going to be
- 15:49more creative.
- 15:51And AI is going to take jobs away from
- 15:55the the stuff that's going to be
- 15:56extremely binary. So for example, I
- 15:59studied computer science in in
- 16:01university. So I dropped out, but I'm a
- 16:04trained engineer. Engineers now have
- 16:07this identity crisis because they're not
- 16:11programming anymore. I saw that Boris
- 16:13the guy who created claude code
- 16:15literally says that he hasn't like de
- 16:18touched he hasn't he hasn't created a
- 16:21line of code in like six months. So you
- 16:23have one of the most well-known
- 16:25engineers of our time not writing code.
- 16:28So what do you do when your identity is
- 16:33engineering and you can't write code?
- 16:36You sh you shift into a more creative
- 16:38aspect of engineering. Now he's
- 16:40reviewing code. Now he's designing
- 16:43systems. Now he's going on podcasts and
- 16:45he's talking about engineering and he's
- 16:47talking about cloud code. So going back
- 16:50to your question, um what do I what do I
- 16:53tell people who
- 16:55you know who have human workflows that
- 16:58are now moving to AI? You're about to do
- 17:01you're probably going to do a bunch more
- 17:05creative work. And if you're if you love
- 17:07creative work, you're going to love your
- 17:09day-to-day more. So in an age where in
- 17:13an age of abundance where so many more
- 17:16things and skills are accessible to so
- 17:19many more people what becomes the
- 17:22competitive advantage your creativity.
- 17:24Yeah. The most creative people win
- 17:27>> we're talk we're talking generally. Of
- 17:28course some people unfortunately are
- 17:31going to lose their job and aren't going
- 17:33to be creative like they're they're not
- 17:36going to be Boris in terms of like being
- 17:39Yeah. Not everyone can go on and talk.
- 17:41We can't just have engineering podcast
- 17:42from every engineer.
- 17:44>> No, no. But I do think that the ones who
- 17:48make the shift to being creative and
- 17:50learn to be creative are
- 17:54are going to love their their
- 17:56day-to-days bec I I think because a lot
- 17:58of people don't like a lot of the
- 17:59minutia that they do on a day-to-day
- 18:02basis. And that's sort of the unspoken
- 18:04truth about white collar work in
- 18:05general. like a lot of people are
- 18:07pushing buttons that if they were like,
- 18:08you know what, if I didn't have to push
- 18:09these buttons, I think I would actually
- 18:11enjoy it. Do you think that for somebody
- 18:14that wants to work for themselves, is
- 18:16the future going to be where they have
- 18:20all these agents building lots of
- 18:23different tools? Like, am I going to
- 18:24have 10 different ways that I'm making
- 18:27money and it's maybe $1,000 from each or
- 18:31am I like we've heard for so long in
- 18:34Silicon Valley, it's like focus, focus,
- 18:35focus. Put all your energy into one
- 18:37thing and let that compound. Is it going
- 18:40to be all the agents working in one
- 18:41thing or or is it going to be like, hey,
- 18:45have lots of ideas, have lots of things
- 18:46making a little bit of money for you and
- 18:49that's going to kind of build over time.
- 18:50I think that's the other part about this
- 18:53big shift around AI, which is this is
- 18:55going to be the golden era for
- 18:57entrepreneurship. If you look back, you
- 19:00know, hundreds of years ago, uh before
- 19:03the industrial revolution and things
- 19:04like that, uh people actually were more
- 19:08often entrepreneurs than not. This idea
- 19:10of you go and work for, you know,
- 19:12factory Henry Ford and and stuff like
- 19:14that is actually a relatively new
- 19:16concept. entrepreneurship, I think,
- 19:19because it it really does celebrate
- 19:21freedom and this idea of like going out
- 19:24there, forging your own path is a just
- 19:27such an incredible concept. Um, and I
- 19:30think that we're kind of like all that's
- 19:32new is old type thing. We're kind of
- 19:34going back to this era that we're going
- 19:35to have millions of people who are going
- 19:39to embrace AI. They might they might
- 19:41have been forcibly have to embrace it in
- 19:44the sense that maybe they get laid off
- 19:45from their job. Maybe they, you know,
- 19:49find an idea that they really like and
- 19:51they just can't stop thinking about it
- 19:53and they go do it. and that they're
- 19:54going to have multiple
- 19:57uh streams of income in the same way
- 19:59that if you look at the average creator
- 20:01who's making money uh today I often see
- 20:04like Tik Toks are short for uh reals
- 20:07where it's like let me tell you how I
- 20:09make $75,000 a month uh as a creator and
- 20:12like hooks you in. I'm like how does
- 20:13this person make $75,000? Then I go and
- 20:16it's like well I made $800 a month in
- 20:18brand in uh in affiliates. I made $6,000
- 20:22a month in uh X uh revenue share. I made
- 20:28I think that's 60,000 and only fans.
- 20:30Yeah, 60,000 and only fan. No, it's
- 20:32usually 60,000 of brand sponsorships.
- 20:34>> Okay.
- 20:35>> I believe that we're entering what I
- 20:37call the age of the multipreneur.
- 20:40>> So a multipreneur is someone who owns
- 20:42multiple businesses, multiple lines of
- 20:44revenue. I will say I think that you
- 20:47know like creators the multipreneur is
- 20:50going to have one product one service
- 20:52one business unit that you know drives
- 20:55the lion share of revenue but I do think
- 20:58that they're going to have multiple
- 21:00businesses and if you can have agents
- 21:01running it and you can create a high
- 21:03margin business and a whole system
- 21:05around it um I think that's pretty cool.
- 21:09You talk a lot about boring ideas and uh
- 21:13trying to go after things other people
- 21:14aren't thinking about. How how do I go
- 21:16about finding and identifying a boring
- 21:19idea worth spending a lot of time on
- 21:21fixing? I like boring ideas because
- 21:26I don't like so much competition. And
- 21:30the context here is I'm not talking
- 21:32about you know you're a Palo Alto guy
- 21:34now you know Silicon Valley you're
- 21:36thinking big. So, I'm talking about the
- 21:39ideas that maybe you can do a million a
- 21:41year, $5 million a year, $25 million a
- 21:43year, which for a lot of people is
- 21:46incredible. Yeah.
- 21:47>> Um especially if you make it a AI native
- 21:51businesses and you end up having a $20
- 21:53million a year business spin off $5
- 21:56million a year and you can sell that
- 21:57business for $20 million very easily,
- 22:01you know, at a 4x multiple. So, um I
- 22:06like boring businesses. I think there's
- 22:08not that much competition in it. Um
- 22:12that being said, um
- 22:16there's been increasingly amount of
- 22:18competition in boring businesses because
- 22:21people like me have been like
- 22:23>> talking about it,
- 22:24>> talking about it.
- 22:25>> Um I think though where there's always
- 22:28going to be opportunity is a boring
- 22:31business in your geography. So I think
- 22:34geograph you know there might be a lot
- 22:36of uh competition in South Florida or in
- 22:38the Bay Area or New York or whatever but
- 22:41I think in you know where I'm from in
- 22:43Canada or in you know other geographies
- 22:46where you can take these concepts
- 22:48localize the language that's another big
- 22:50piece of it.
- 22:50>> Um
- 22:52>> you know there's this there's a story um
- 22:56that I really like. So, I'm from Quebec,
- 22:58and in in Quebec, it is one one of the
- 23:02places where people drink the most
- 23:04amount of Pepsi
- 23:07>> on the planet. So, why do Quebecers
- 23:10drink Pepsi instead of Coke? And they
- 23:12did some research to understand why. And
- 23:15it has to do with marketing in a local
- 23:18language to people in a way that, you
- 23:22know, really resonates with them. So in
- 23:25the 1960s or something when KO came to
- 23:27Canada, they basically did all the ads
- 23:30across Canada or or when KO started
- 23:33marketing with television in Canada,
- 23:34they did all the ads in Canada and they
- 23:37were all the same. And when they went to
- 23:39Quebec, they speak French in Quebec.
- 23:41They just translated the the ads into
- 23:43into French.
- 23:44>> And it's a different culture. And what
- 23:47works in Toronto might not work in
- 23:49Montreal. So what Pepsi did was
- 23:52different. They hired a local agency to
- 23:54do it and they basically said we're
- 23:57gonna, you know, we're just going to do
- 24:00something specific to Quebec that's
- 24:02really going to resonate with them. And
- 24:04it's almost 65 years later, people to
- 24:08this day still drink Pepsi.
- 24:10>> So going back to in the age of AI,
- 24:13boring businesses. I believe that you
- 24:16know local localization
- 24:19marketing towards different geographies
- 24:22but being AI native there's a lot of
- 24:24opportunity there and localization is
- 24:27one of the first killer
- 24:31AI uh use cases that it solved. I felt
- 24:34like like we within my startup we had
- 24:37spent hundreds of thousands of dollars
- 24:39on building localization tools pre AAI
- 24:41and we just rebuilt them and in a matter
- 24:45of like 3 weeks and it is like in and
- 24:48it's all like translated in real time
- 24:50like it's incredible and I mean we had
- 24:53really smart people that were working on
- 24:54it before. It's like this is something
- 24:56that the the tools solve really well.
- 24:58It's a really hard problem that the
- 24:59tools like can really automate. You've
- 25:02talked about this idea of a builder
- 25:04distributor.
- 25:05>> What is that?
- 25:06>> Oh, well in the hai anyone can build,
- 25:09right? Like all if you can you don't
- 25:12even need I was going to say if you can
- 25:13speak English, you can build. But you
- 25:14don't even need to speak English. You
- 25:15can speak any language and you just
- 25:17prompt
- 25:18>> to build. How do you compete in that
- 25:20world? Well, the way to compete is if
- 25:23you understand distribution quite well.
- 25:26So if you understand how to create
- 25:28scroll stopping Instagram posts or
- 25:31videos that people like or um you
- 25:35understand how to use cling which is a
- 25:37video model to create like really
- 25:39interesting commercials um and then use
- 25:42that to uh connect that with meta ads
- 25:45and and start you know pumping ads then
- 25:48you have an advantage. So I believe that
- 25:50this like builder distributor combo is
- 25:55is probably the most lethal type of
- 25:58person in the AI age because they they
- 26:02understand distribution. They understand
- 26:05how to capture attention and how to
- 26:07convert that attention into uh revenue
- 26:10but they also understand how they can
- 26:13drive value from a product perspective.
- 26:15The product has to be good and the bar
- 26:18for good products is increasing and
- 26:19increasing especially when it comes to
- 26:21digital products. So you have to be able
- 26:24to take feedback, optimize, create
- 26:26features, have that loop. And so I'm a
- 26:30big believer in that type of person. Are
- 26:32the AI tools to the point where they can
- 26:35help you build the product and then if
- 26:38you feed feedback into them, it can sort
- 26:41of create the product and the features
- 26:45that your customers and users are asking
- 26:47for and then like deploy them and then
- 26:49get more feedback. like is that loop
- 26:51solved yet or is it still coming?
- 26:53>> This is a bit like in the minutia but
- 26:56we're going to go there. There's a term
- 26:59that actually uh Andre Carpathy and
- 27:03Peter Stein uh I think his name's uh
- 27:06Peter Stein Brener I think uh from
- 27:09OpenClaw the guy who started OpenClaw
- 27:11they've been talking about this concept
- 27:12called loop engineering
- 27:14>> and it's just basically this way to tell
- 27:17your LLM to just keep going and building
- 27:21on a loop
- 27:23>> and
- 27:25Twitter just went like completely
- 27:27completely
- 27:29uh just love this concept. To me that
- 27:32concept is it's interesting but it's way
- 27:34more interesting for business use cases
- 27:36not engineering use cases. So loops are
- 27:39actually really interesting in the
- 27:40context to what you were talking about.
- 27:43Say you're able to say you started a
- 27:46company you have a product
- 27:48and every day you can speak to 10
- 27:50customers. Well, in the AI world, you
- 27:53can actually speak to these 10
- 27:55customers, have meeting notes that get
- 27:58synced to, let's say, uh, Google Docs or
- 28:00Google Drive folder,
- 28:02>> and then you can set up a loop that
- 28:04says, look at this, look at every day,
- 28:07look at this docs folder, then uh, that
- 28:10customer feedback docs folder. see what
- 28:13people like about the product, see what
- 28:14people don't like about the product, and
- 28:16every day pick the most interesting
- 28:18problem to solve and create a feature so
- 28:21that I can review it and it'll go and do
- 28:25that on a loop every single day. Now, in
- 28:285 years or 3 years or two years, we
- 28:30might get to a point where you don't
- 28:31even need a human in the loop. You might
- 28:33have this autonomous
- 28:35company
- 28:37builder type of experience where you
- 28:41basically just you basically say like
- 28:43your goal is to generate revenue
- 28:46>> uh or your goal is to create retention
- 28:47or your goal is to uh drive virality. Go
- 28:51look at customer conversations every
- 28:53single day and go pick one feature to go
- 28:56and build these people. By the way,
- 28:58isn't that crazy? It's crazy. Like,
- 29:01isn't that isn't all of this crazy?
- 29:04Like, we we're all so numb to all of
- 29:06this. But like, I'm basically telling
- 29:08you that you can essentially press a
- 29:10button that every single day you're
- 29:13going to be able to drive value for
- 29:16customers. And all you're going to have
- 29:18to do is interface with customers, help
- 29:22customers, get them to tell you their
- 29:26problems, and then on a loop, you're
- 29:29going to have the world's greatest super
- 29:32intelligence at a fraction of a price
- 29:34that you would pay a team. We're talking
- 29:36about a dollar an hour, $2 an hour, even
- 29:38less.
- 29:39>> And you can have it every single day
- 29:41drive value for customers. And all
- 29:43you're going to have to do is we're sit
- 29:45there from your high chair in the 38th
- 29:47floor looking at Miami Beach and you're
- 29:50just going to be like, you know what,
- 29:51that's a good feature. Good job, Hermes
- 29:54agent. Yeah.
- 29:55>> Go and deploy this. It deploys it and
- 29:57then you drive value to customers lives
- 30:00every single day. Where in the past it
- 30:02used to take you millions of dollars
- 30:04that you had to raise venture capital
- 30:06for. You had to hire a team. There was
- 30:08just as many bugs if not more bugs. And
- 30:11now you're driving value every single
- 30:14day and making the lives of your
- 30:16customers happy and healthier. And
- 30:17hopefully you can even give them a
- 30:21cheaper product cuz now your cost
- 30:23structure is a 20th of what it used to
- 30:26be. How how amazing is that? I a few
- 30:31months ago I sat down with my son who
- 30:33works at a basketball card store and
- 30:37they have no inventory and so like
- 30:40management they have no software for it.
- 30:41So we're like, "Oh, let's let's just
- 30:42play around with one of the vibe coding
- 30:44tools and and see what we can build."
- 30:47And in a matter of three hours,
- 30:51I just like leaned back in my chair and
- 30:54I was just
- 30:56I like I was like my mouth was like
- 30:59gaping open. I I couldn't believe it and
- 31:00my you know my teenage son is like
- 31:02what's the deal? And I was just like
- 31:05when I 15 years ago when I first quit my
- 31:08job and started to build a company this
- 31:10exact same process took me six months.
- 31:13It took me three months to find people
- 31:16to build this with me and then it took
- 31:18them two months to get a first version
- 31:21out and then it took another month for
- 31:25me to give them feedback and then get
- 31:26another version out. And so like and
- 31:28that's that's where we are in three
- 31:30hours and it was like 200 bucks in
- 31:32tokens or something. That's the other
- 31:35people that's the other thing that
- 31:37people don't talk about this AI age
- 31:39which I think is so important which is
- 31:41in the past you needed to have graduated
- 31:45Stanford went to Harvard lived in
- 31:46Silicon Valley in order to create a
- 31:49startup tech startup that can scale.
- 31:53Today you can be anywhere. You can be
- 31:56anyone. You can be 15 years old or 85
- 32:02years old. And that to me is awesome,
- 32:06right? The fact that like when I wanted
- 32:09to start a tech startup, I had to move
- 32:11to San Francisco. I had to leave my
- 32:13family and friends and move to a
- 32:15different country across the continent
- 32:19to a place I knew no one. And I'm not,
- 32:21this isn't a boohoo story, but I to be
- 32:23honest would have rather stayed there.
- 32:25>> Yeah.
- 32:25>> Like, you know, but I had to go and do
- 32:28that and it was a fun experience and
- 32:30stuff like that, but at the same time,
- 32:32it's so cool that people are able just
- 32:34to wake up today and the limitation that
- 32:37people have is just their ideas.
- 32:40>> Yeah.
- 32:41>> Whereas in the past, there was all these
- 32:43societal limitations that were were
- 32:46placed. You needed a VC to basically be
- 32:48like, you know what? I like this. I like
- 32:51the school you went to. I like this
- 32:53product. I'm going to give you a million
- 32:54dollars. And you just needed the right
- 32:56VC at the right time to tell you that
- 32:59thing. And what kind of world is that,
- 33:00right? Like I hate that world because
- 33:02like to me that's a non-inclusive world.
- 33:05Yeah. They're they're gatekeepers.
- 33:08They're basically we're gatekeepers to
- 33:11uh to making dreams and ideas possible.
- 33:14Yeah. and and the gatekeepers now with
- 33:16AI, it's like democratized
- 33:18like who can do what because the
- 33:20barriers of entry are so much lower.
- 33:22Exactly. And I'm not saying like
- 33:24building a ventureback company is bad.
- 33:26I'm not saying like VCs are bad at all.
- 33:28You know, some of my best friends are
- 33:30actually VCs and and I've run
- 33:32ventureback companies and sold
- 33:33ventureback companies. So, I'm not
- 33:34saying uh it's a bad thing. What I am
- 33:37saying is it's no longer the only model
- 33:40for building these kind of companies. It
- 33:42is amazing that there's now this whole
- 33:44other set of opportunities that are now
- 33:47presented and you you know some people
- 33:50like pizza and some people like pasta
- 33:52you know and now the people who like
- 33:55pizza can go and eat some pizza and they
- 33:57can be whoever. Well, and the reality is
- 33:59the venturebacked model works for like
- 34:03less than 1% of all companies that are
- 34:07created. And of the companies that VCs,
- 34:10investors back, only like a very small
- 34:13percentage of the ones they back, and
- 34:15they're only backing like a small
- 34:16percentage of the ones they look at. So,
- 34:18we're talking about a very, very small
- 34:19group of people. Only a small percentage
- 34:20of the ones that they back actually work
- 34:23and return the money. And they know that
- 34:24their whole model's baked into that. So
- 34:27the vast majority of of anything anyone
- 34:30is building should not be that model
- 34:32like it because that model only works
- 34:34for this tiny fraction of people and
- 34:36companies and is having raised a bunch
- 34:39of money on a bunch of different
- 34:40companies learned the hard way that some
- 34:42of the things we've raised for should
- 34:44not have been venture back like we
- 34:46should have done this other model but
- 34:48like one of my companies the first time
- 34:49I raised was because this exact problem
- 34:52we're talking about like I had six
- 34:54engineers and I They had 300,000 in
- 34:57recurring revenue and the engineers were
- 35:00let's call them 100,000 each. So it's
- 35:02like the engineers are costing 600
- 35:04grand. The recurring revenue is 300
- 35:05grand. Like doesn't take a genius to
- 35:06figure out like the math doesn't work.
- 35:08It was like this golden anchor that was
- 35:10going to sink our entire ship. And in
- 35:12the middle of the night I had to be like
- 35:14I had to email anybody I could find or
- 35:16I'd ever talked to and say, "Hey, I
- 35:17think I got a cool concept. Could you
- 35:19back this?" But it probably was never
- 35:22going to be a billion-dollar outcome for
- 35:24anybody. In which case, if I could have
- 35:27bootstrapped it, I would have. But it
- 35:28was like, you know, just like the cost
- 35:30didn't make sense. Now today, if we'd
- 35:32had that same insight and we'd had maybe
- 35:34two or three of us
- 35:37engineering and building the product
- 35:39with these other things, supplementing
- 35:40it, like we could take it so much
- 35:42further and and maybe we could have, you
- 35:44know, you could you could bootstrap the
- 35:46whole thing. And that's how you build a
- 35:47real business, right? It's like it makes
- 35:49money like it it provides service
- 35:51customers like enough to keep paying for
- 35:52it or to pay more for it. They tell
- 35:54their friends, you know, that creates
- 35:55more momentum. You know, no VC is going
- 35:58to, you know, create customer traction.
- 36:00And you see, I thought when the social
- 36:02network movie came out in 2012, I was
- 36:04like, this is peak startups. Like I
- 36:06remember going to the movie and I walked
- 36:07out in the parking lot and I was like,
- 36:09that's it. Like this is like jump the
- 36:12shark. And then startups just exploded.
- 36:15But actually the the value of startups
- 36:17exploded and the the market size
- 36:19exploded but actually the number of
- 36:20startups getting created didn't explode
- 36:22but that is now that was like 2012 I
- 36:25think or 2011 now it's 15 years later
- 36:29and actually we see the like the app
- 36:32store um app submissions is like
- 36:34exploding people are like creating apps
- 36:36like crazy um you see the stripe numbers
- 36:39of new businesses that are creating and
- 36:40the number of businesses that are
- 36:41creating is exploding and I I mean, what
- 36:45else do you point it to other than like
- 36:46this age of abundance and opportunity
- 36:48that now has been unlocked with AI?
- 36:50Exactly. Like when I see the Stripe
- 36:52charts and stuff like that and the app
- 36:55store charts, it's exactly what I'm
- 36:57talking about around the age of the
- 36:59multi-reneur. It's like the cost to try
- 37:02an idea is now so small that if you're
- 37:06listening to this, you should probably
- 37:08try an idea. You know, like you should
- 37:11even if it's hey the goal of it of this
- 37:16endeavor is to get really good at cla
- 37:18code and that's my KPI or have a hundred
- 37:22just happy customers. Like you don't
- 37:23even need to do it to make money but
- 37:25just to like learn or you know it's sort
- 37:28of like playing an instrument. Like it's
- 37:30fun to learn how to play an instrument
- 37:32cuz once you master the instrument it's
- 37:34awesome. Yeah.
- 37:35>> And like I'll be honest, when you start
- 37:38playing an instrument,
- 37:40it sucks. It's you you're you're let's
- 37:44say you're trying to learn how to play
- 37:45guitar. You're listening to it and
- 37:47you're like, "This is horrible." Like I
- 37:48learned how to play guitar. It's like I
- 37:50used to hear myself playing guitar and I
- 37:51was like, "This is making my ears
- 37:54absolutely bleed." And you sort of bleed
- 37:57through how bad you are. And eventually
- 37:59you get to a point where you're playing
- 38:00like stairway to heaven and it's this
- 38:03magical moment. And that's how you're
- 38:04going to feel when you build an idea
- 38:06with AI. And that's kind of also what
- 38:09which what fires me up about people
- 38:12building not just to start a business
- 38:15>> but also just to learn. I have a friend
- 38:17in Dubai and he's really talented
- 38:19entrepreneur. He's raised some money for
- 38:21a startup, but he had this engineering
- 38:24team. Then he ran out of money and he
- 38:27couldn't raise more money and so he had
- 38:28to let his whole team go. And it's just
- 38:30him. This is like eight or nine months
- 38:32ago. And I spoke to him recently. I
- 38:35haven't talked to him in a few months.
- 38:36And he was like, he's like, "Man, eight
- 38:38or nine months ago, my whole team, I had
- 38:40to let them go and it was the worst
- 38:42thing ever." And I didn't know what I
- 38:44was going to do. So I just started
- 38:46learning how to claude code
- 38:50>> and he's like I've completely reinvented
- 38:53the whole thing. He's he's now this is
- 38:55like you know this is like you and you
- 38:58can do this too. He he he's like in the
- 39:00process of his company getting acquired
- 39:02for millions tens of millions of
- 39:05dollars. I mean this is this is says
- 39:08much more about him than anybody else.
- 39:09like I couldn't have done what he's
- 39:10done, but just that this is even
- 39:13possible. And he's like I'm like well
- 39:17when you get to this new organization
- 39:18like you can probably have a team. He's
- 39:19like I don't I don't want a team. Like I
- 39:22I'm doing everything. He's like okay
- 39:24like even everything is part of the
- 39:26sales process now. He's like hey all the
- 39:28docs for it they're all in this tool
- 39:30that I built. You can just go in here.
- 39:32He's like build his own Carter thing,
- 39:34you know? It's like everything now he's
- 39:35like so he's so self-sufficient. He's so
- 39:38self-reliant and like he can literally
- 39:42do anything. Nothing is stopping him. No
- 39:44one is blocking him. And anytime
- 39:46something comes up, he's like, "I'll fix
- 39:48that." Myself. And six or nine months
- 39:50ago, like he couldn't have said that.
- 39:51And I probably not everyone is as
- 39:54resilient as him. I certainly am not.
- 39:56But can we be 10 20% of that? Like yeah,
- 40:00you can you can be 10 or 20% of that.
- 40:03But like you said, like you just have to
- 40:04get out and do it. And I've interviewed
- 40:06people. One of my favorite questions
- 40:08asked now I was like tell me what tools
- 40:10you're using. Um, I had an engineer
- 40:12recently who asked for a big raise and
- 40:14wanting to be called in an AI engineer.
- 40:16And I said, "Screen share your cloud
- 40:20credits. Let me see how much you're
- 40:21using. Like, what are you doing?" And it
- 40:23wasn't super positive thing for him to
- 40:25show, which was not to make him feel
- 40:27bad, but it was to then say, "Hey, like
- 40:30let's improve. Let's change. What can we
- 40:33do? Let's talk in two weeks, let's talk
- 40:35in four weeks." Immediately, like that
- 40:37day, like he started using AI more. they
- 40:40started shipping more. Um, but I do
- 40:42still interview people and they say like
- 40:44I say like what tools are you using and
- 40:46it is shocking to me but they'll say
- 40:49nothing. Like I'm not I'm not using
- 40:51anything. I'm like you're not using
- 40:52anything. You haven't tried? No, I
- 40:53haven't tried anything. Well, what are
- 40:55you interesting about? What are you
- 40:56reading about? I haven't read I I've
- 40:58literally had this in interviews like I
- 40:59haven't read any I haven't seen anything
- 41:01that I'm interested. I'm like well then
- 41:04you're in a bad spot professionally
- 41:06because you've got your head in the
- 41:08sand. Meanwhile, there's all these other
- 41:10people like my friend Simon and others
- 41:12who are like changing the way they were
- 41:14completely reinventing the way they're
- 41:16they're building products and services
- 41:18and making money and like they're going
- 41:21to win. those people were clearly gonna
- 41:23win. And and so it's honestly it's not
- 41:26it's not even surprising to me that most
- 41:28people are still not
- 41:32really diving into the tools because
- 41:36the truth is it requires
- 41:39I'm not going to say 10,000 hours but
- 41:40like a thousand hours
- 41:42>> really that much. I think there's the,
- 41:44you know, thousand Eisenberg's
- 41:45thousandhour rule, you know. Yeah. Uh,
- 41:48you need to like really put yourself
- 41:51through stuff not working. Um, pushing
- 41:56stuff into the world, seeing how it
- 41:58works,
- 41:59>> you know, playing, reading about it,
- 42:00studying, go watching other people, all
- 42:02that stuff. It just takes time. And it's
- 42:06sort of like, you know, going back to
- 42:08like the guitar analogy, like how many
- 42:10people like music? Everyone. Everyone
- 42:13listens to music. How many people play
- 42:15an instrument like a guitar? I don't
- 42:16know 1% of people, 2% of people. Playing
- 42:20the instrument is difficult cuz like I
- 42:24like I was saying, you have to go
- 42:25through this trough of despair for a
- 42:28really long time before you end up
- 42:30feeling good about it. There's instant
- 42:33gratification when you use chat GBT. if
- 42:36you ask it a question and you get
- 42:38something back like you you sort of see
- 42:40the value and it's it's obvious but
- 42:42there isn't the same instant
- 42:44gratification that you get for becoming
- 42:46AI native which to me is you have a set
- 42:50of jobs to be done and set of workflows
- 42:54that you do as a human being and you've
- 42:56now basically said hey in a world where
- 42:59I'm managing 100 agents what does that
- 43:02look like if those agents are fulfilling
- 43:05the work and that actually is somewhat
- 43:08complex, somewhat tiresome to go
- 43:10through, somewhat difficult to really
- 43:12like
- 43:14fine-tune to a place where it's doing
- 43:18good work. Put yourself in this scenario
- 43:21for a minute. You're fired from your
- 43:24job. You're told you're not employable
- 43:27anymore. Your skills just aren't what
- 43:30they used to be. You've got 90 days to
- 43:35create something for yourself. It might
- 43:38not be totally sustaining you ever every
- 43:40every aspect of your life, but you've
- 43:42got to start generating some income in
- 43:44the next 3 months and you're starting
- 43:47from scratch today. Where would you
- 43:49begin? The first thing I would do is I
- 43:54I say this uh often which is you know
- 43:57marry
- 43:59mar mar mar mar mar mar mar mar mar mar
- 43:59mar mar mar mar mar mar mar mar mar mar
- 43:59marry the niche date the product. So I
- 44:02would pick a niche that I
- 44:05love and I feel like I have some unfair
- 44:07advantage in. Now someone listening to
- 44:10this is might be like well I don't have
- 44:13an unfair advantage in anything and it's
- 44:16like everyone has some advantage to
- 44:19someone else in the sense of you're from
- 44:22a specific neighborhood. You went to a
- 44:24specific school. You know these people
- 44:26you you um you're you're
- 44:30good at guitar. you're bad at, you know,
- 44:32you're there's something unique about
- 44:34you that that you your life experiences
- 44:39have led you to this point and you have
- 44:40that
- 44:42that so I would figure out what my step
- 44:45one would be figure out what my niche
- 44:47is.
- 44:48>> Step two is I have this framework I call
- 44:51the ACP framework, audience, community,
- 44:54product. And I believe that if you're
- 44:56building a business in the AI age, you
- 44:58want to build a business that follows
- 45:00that framework.
- 45:03Every business I starts as a X account.
- 45:07It starts as an Instagram account. It
- 45:09starts as a Tik Tok account. It starts
- 45:11as an audience first. Because in the AI
- 45:14age when you can build anything, the
- 45:16mode is in a lot of ways the
- 45:18distribution. So what I would do for the
- 45:20first 90 days is I would make it a goal
- 45:23to figure out what is the format that is
- 45:26going to get my niche to
- 45:31follow me. So on my Instagram for
- 45:34example, it's like follow Greg Eisberg
- 45:38for startup ideas in the AI age. That's
- 45:40what like my bio says. So like that's
- 45:43the that's my niche, right? What is what
- 45:45is your niche? what you know that's the
- 45:48that that's what I would be thinking
- 45:49about and then a community which which
- 45:52is once you have your audience you know
- 45:54how do you convert a small amount of
- 45:56them into an IRL or digital community so
- 46:00that would be my second step and my
- 46:02third step is once I understand this
- 46:04audience once I I've gotten a few
- 46:07hundred followers a few thousand
- 46:08followers a few people in my community a
- 46:10WhatsApp group you know a local meetup
- 46:14then it's what is the product or service
- 46:16I build for them. And that's not going
- 46:18to take long. Like the building is only
- 46:20going to take a day or something, right?
- 46:21And then it's just, you know, for me,
- 46:24it's prioritizing what's a business
- 46:26model that makes sense that I think
- 46:28people really need that's a a
- 46:30painkiller, not a vitamin
- 46:32>> that I think I can sell in a relatively
- 46:35uh short cycle. And that's what I would
- 46:39do. And I would wrap that around how
- 46:42would I come up with the idea? It would
- 46:43be a mix of uh what we talked about
- 46:46around asking customers what they want.
- 46:49It would be a mix around bringing in
- 46:51MCPs like the XMCP and the idea browser
- 46:54MCP and just trying a bunch of different
- 46:57products to see what what could work.
- 46:59>> What failure or apparent failure led to
- 47:02a big success for you?
- 47:04>> The first thing that comes to mind
- 47:06honestly was
- 47:10I basically I lived
- 47:12I lived in this little neighborhood. I
- 47:14think I must have been like I don't know
- 47:167 years old and I was really into
- 47:19baseball
- 47:21and uh
- 47:24I was really good at baseball honestly
- 47:26especially cuz I was in Canada so like
- 47:28no one's good at baseball you know not
- 47:29that many people are good it's not like
- 47:30in the states you know like people
- 47:32people played hockey right yeah so
- 47:34anyways I was pretty good at baseball um
- 47:36I tried out for the team
- 47:39>> and I played amazing like the try out I
- 47:43just like I think Hey, you know, I don't
- 47:45know. It was like I was at bat four
- 47:46times. I think I got like three triples
- 47:48and a single, you know, and I had a
- 47:51smile on my face the whole time. I was
- 47:52It was good teamwork. I, you know, I
- 47:54left the try out being like, "Crushed
- 47:56it. Crushed it. This was amazing. I'm so
- 47:59excited." And it was like the first year
- 48:02where we get our own jerseys. And I just
- 48:04like pictured myself in these jerseys.
- 48:07Walk into school the next day just like
- 48:09with a little bit of swagger in my step.
- 48:12Then I get a call that night from the
- 48:15coach and he was like, "Sorry, you
- 48:18didn't make the team."
- 48:20And when I found out, I was like, "I
- 48:23didn't make the team. Like, who took my
- 48:25spot?" Turns out it was the coach's
- 48:28son
- 48:30made the team for the shortstop spot.
- 48:34And he was like a year younger and also
- 48:37just like a very he was a year younger.
- 48:40when you're six and seven, that's like a
- 48:42big deal.
- 48:43>> Sure.
- 48:43>> I learned a very valuable lesson that
- 48:45day, which was
- 48:47the world is unfair.
- 48:50Um, sometimes you could
- 48:53hit really well, do really well in life,
- 48:56do all the right things, but sometimes
- 48:58just the way the cookie crumbles
- 49:01is
- 49:02some gatekeeper somewhere does
- 49:04something, some VC doesn't want to fund
- 49:06it even though they said they'd fund it.
- 49:08You know, there's a million things that
- 49:10could happen in life and that are out of
- 49:13your control. And that was such a
- 49:17monumental
- 49:18formative experience for me. What I
- 49:22learned from it
- 49:24was was that was basically just like
- 49:27being okay with the fact that not
- 49:30everything is in your control. What's a
- 49:31lesson in life that's been hardest for
- 49:33you to learn? Not everything in life is
- 49:35is in my control. I mean, I think as
- 49:38human beings, we want to control things,
- 49:41right? Like what I love about using a
- 49:44computer is that I can control it in the
- 49:47sense I can tell it to do it certain
- 49:49things and part of that makes me in the
- 49:51flow state of like I feel relaxed when I
- 49:55when I do it. I think human beings want
- 49:57to feel relaxed. We want to
- 50:00there's a certain amount of pressure
- 50:02that exists when we are in a volatile
- 50:06situation and I think we all want to be
- 50:08away from that. So
- 50:11you know I always say it's kind of like
- 50:14in some ways you want to live your life
- 50:17you want to live a light life and in
- 50:20that sense like you don't want to feel
- 50:22like you have all these like
- 50:23dependencies and external pressures and
- 50:25stuff like that. So that's been hard
- 50:27hard to deal with. At the same time, you
- 50:29also want to fulfill your potential. You
- 50:32know, you don't want to do you don't
- 50:34want to not do things because you're
- 50:35like, you know what, that's going to
- 50:37invoke a whole bunch of external
- 50:39dependencies and like I don't want to
- 50:41deal with like if that goes wrong. So
- 50:44dealing with those two things has been
- 50:46something that I I spend a lot of my
- 50:47time thinking about.
- 50:48>> What's a limiting belief that you still
- 50:50wrestle with today? In my mind, I have
- 50:53like two sets of inspirations. So, I
- 50:57have like the the Silicon Valley greats,
- 51:01like the people who built Silicon
- 51:02Valley, the people the biggest
- 51:04billionaires on the planet, the biggest
- 51:06founders on the planet, the people doing
- 51:07big things, the Jensen Huangs, the Mark
- 51:09Zuckerbergs, those types of people. And
- 51:12the other end of the spectrum, I have
- 51:13like my, you know, my grandfather who
- 51:16had like, you know, a small business
- 51:18that, but he he he he led his life on um
- 51:24his own terms. I you know I don't know
- 51:26if it's a limiting belief being like I
- 51:28want to own a bunch you know a bunch of
- 51:31small businesses
- 51:32>> but like I I I just what I deal with and
- 51:36I'm not really answering your question
- 51:37but I feel like the struggle I have is
- 51:40deciding where on the spectrum I want to
- 51:43be. So is that a limiting belief?
- 51:46Perhaps
- 51:48you could say that my limiting belief is
- 51:51I'm not thinking big enough. Um, that
- 51:54being said, I live a life that I love
- 51:57and that I I think Virgil Abau uh used
- 52:00to say like I live a life that makes
- 52:03your 16-year-old proud.
- 52:05>> Like my 16-year-old self is I think
- 52:07would be extremely proud of what I've
- 52:10accomplished and what I what I do on a
- 52:11dayto-day. So, it's kind of like I don't
- 52:13know where that's where do you feel
- 52:15fulfilled?
- 52:16>> Yeah. Yeah. There's a study that said
- 52:18that like vast majority of people don't
- 52:21live within their means. They don't live
- 52:23within even rich people like really
- 52:25really rich people who don't like a
- 52:27large percentage of really wealthy
- 52:28people still don't live within this
- 52:31incredible life they created because
- 52:33they're always trying to get more.
- 52:35They're always trying to go for more.
- 52:36And I I mean I struggle with this too.
- 52:39And I mean I look I live in Northern
- 52:41California. So you know what is enough?
- 52:44And then what what am I like what's
- 52:48right for me? And that's that's only a
- 52:51question that I can answer. and what's
- 52:52right for Mark Zuckerberg who I used to
- 52:54live down the street from and I was
- 52:56renting but he he owned he owns like
- 52:59eight homes there. Um but I mean that
- 53:02was like a very real every day would
- 53:03drive home and I would drive past his
- 53:04house and his security guard and be like
- 53:08we live on the same street. I we sleep
- 53:10we both sleep on a bed like we're both
- 53:14breathing the same air but you know is
- 53:17it enough or do I have to go be that?
- 53:19And I think that's that's one of these
- 53:21existential questions of life is just
- 53:23coming to terms with who you are, who
- 53:25you uniquely are and then like being
- 53:27comfortable with that.
- 53:28>> Yeah.
- 53:28>> And coming to terms with that.
- 53:30>> Yeah.
- 53:30>> And if it's Grant Cardone, it's like
- 53:34it's always like, you know, in our
- 53:36interview, we spent a lot of time
- 53:38talking about the yacht. He wants he has
- 53:40he's like gunned for the question is
- 53:42like could you just rent I mean you he
- 53:44could afford to rent the yacht but he's
- 53:45like really got to own it and like well
- 53:48he's at the other end of the spectrum
- 53:49right he's he's trying to do big things
- 53:53and a part of that is like I don't know
- 53:55him or or know him well but my my
- 54:00what I've gathered from people who do
- 54:03those big things is they there's a
- 54:05certain lifestyle attached to it. It's
- 54:07like I think it's like that's what's
- 54:08right for him and actually like the
- 54:11answer is like you could say that's the
- 54:14wrong thing for him to go after but
- 54:15actually I think for him it's the right
- 54:17thing for him to go after because that's
- 54:18how he's wired.
- 54:19>> It's not really how maybe I'm wired or
- 54:22you're wired
- 54:22>> maybe. And you know it's sort of like no
- 54:25one knows except Grant.
- 54:27>> Right.
- 54:28>> Right. So if he's if he's being if he's
- 54:30being honest I mean I guess if he's
- 54:31being authentic to what he's saying like
- 54:33like and I think he is I think he's very
- 54:36authentic to who he is like he is the
- 54:38guy that you see and I've you've watched
- 54:41and that I've listened to his books like
- 54:43>> I don't know I spent two hours with him
- 54:46he seems to be that guy I can only speak
- 54:48to myself and what I've learned is the
- 54:51most honest version of myself is the
- 54:54version that you see today when I raised
- 54:56venture capital and I was doing the
- 54:58Silicon Valley thing. I was doing it
- 55:00because I thought that that's what I
- 55:03needed to be in order to be successful.
- 55:06And then I realized that I don't I don't
- 55:09need I can be whoever I think is
- 55:11interesting, cool to myself, even if
- 55:14it's uncool,
- 55:15>> you know, I could just do things that I
- 55:17think are interesting to me and make a
- 55:21living doing that. And and that's what
- 55:23makes me happy.
- 55:24>> When someone says your name in 50 years,
- 55:26what do you hope they say next? I would
- 55:28say he helped me.
- 55:30That's it. You know, if I can help
- 55:32people, I want to serve people. Like I
- 55:36always say like I live to serve.
- 55:38>> And you know, on my YouTube channel or
- 55:41on my podcast, like when people comment
- 55:43stuff and they're always like, "Thank
- 55:44you so much. Like I never knew this like
- 55:45tool existed or this idea like changed
- 55:47my life. I found an idea off your
- 55:49podcast.
- 55:50Now I'm doing 100k a month." And I
- 55:52usually just respond like my default is
- 55:54I live to serve. I think that if human
- 55:56beings live to serve, you know, we live
- 55:59in such a polarizing negative place that
- 56:03in some ways that if we can live to
- 56:05serve, I think the world hopefully would
- 56:10be a little a little bit better. Outside
- 56:12of family, who's the person you most
- 56:13admire?
- 56:14>> I don't know if I admire anyone.
- 56:16I have respect for a lot of people
- 56:20and I'm inspired by a lot of people.
- 56:22admire like that feels like like it's a
- 56:24muse, you know what I mean? Like I have
- 56:26someone on a pedestal.
- 56:27>> Yeah.
- 56:28>> Um I I I wouldn't I wouldn't say I have
- 56:31anyone.
- 56:32>> If you could implant one idea into
- 56:33everyone in the world, what would it be?
- 56:35Live to serve.
- 56:37Live to serve. If you can
- 56:40if you can find something some like we
- 56:43talked about, you know, marry the niche,
- 56:46date the product. If you can find a
- 56:47niche group of people that you really
- 56:50care about and you can serve them and
- 56:52add value to their lives,
- 56:55to me that's a life worth living.
- 56:57Hardest thing you've ever accomplished?
- 56:58The hardest thing I ever accomplished
- 57:00was is just being truthful to myself.
- 57:03Like not getting We live in such a a
- 57:06world where there's so much tension over
- 57:09here, tension over there. Come here, do
- 57:10this, do that. And I find it difficult
- 57:15to
- 57:17like put blockers on. Like you you I'm
- 57:19sure you've seen pictures or seen horses
- 57:22that have like blinders on and they just
- 57:24like go run. Like to me that's been the
- 57:27hardest in life to basically be like,
- 57:29"Okay, I have these three goals in life.
- 57:32Be an incredible father and husband. uh
- 57:35say um you know serve 10 million people,
- 57:4010 10 million entrepreneurs by giving
- 57:42them ideas and tactics and stuff like
- 57:44that and give back to my community um
- 57:48from like a philan philanthropic
- 57:50perspective. I just want to do those
- 57:52things, you know what I mean? And
- 57:54sometimes life has this way of being
- 57:56like you should go over here, you should
- 57:58go over here and I'm trying my best to
- 58:00stay focused. Best advice for overcoming
- 58:03hard things. the people that love you
- 58:05the most. And it's interesting because
- 58:07the people that love you the most, you
- 58:09go to them the least for advice,
- 58:13>> for example, like your parents, your
- 58:16aunts and uncles, your cousins, the
- 58:18people you grow up with, you know, I
- 58:20think I wouldn't discount
- 58:23those people's advice to help you get
- 58:27you to where you want to go. It's really
- 58:30smart. Actually, a close friend of mine
- 58:33told me that one time that my dad had
- 58:35told him that he didn't think I asked
- 58:38for his advice very much. And I think it
- 58:40wasn't something naturally like just I
- 58:42done on purpose. I just hadn't thought
- 58:44of it. And so I've started doing that a
- 58:46lot more since they made that comment.
- 58:48And I've it's been really helpful that I
- 58:51mean it's my answer is the nonviral,
- 58:54non-clippable answer that I think is
- 58:56truthful. The answer that I could have
- 58:58given you that would like go viral would
- 59:00be like the people you grew up with just
- 59:02because you live there, you know, they
- 59:05they don't love you and you know your
- 59:07parents choose your own family and burn
- 59:10your bridges and and it's like picking
- 59:13where you are on the spectrum, who you
- 59:15truly are. Like the people you grew up
- 59:17with are underrated
- 59:19and that's my take on that. And that
- 59:22doesn't mean you can't have people
- 59:25uh you know you can't create a spectrum
- 59:27of people you get advice from, people
- 59:29who love you the most and people who you
- 59:31admire or look up to. But I think that
- 59:34we tend to model our lives after like
- 59:37the aspirational people. And we don't
- 59:40tend to model our lives around the
- 59:42people who love us the most. If you die
- 59:44and you meet God, what do you hope he
- 59:46says to you?
- 59:47>> You did a good job. And uh and how do
- 59:50you measure your life? Probably by what
- 59:52my family
- 59:56says about me, you know, if if I mean,
- 1:00:00I'm I'm a I'm a father now. I'm a year
- 1:00:03and a half old and and assume to have
- 1:00:05another one uh and a mom.
- 1:00:09So yeah, you know, as you know, being a
- 1:00:12dad like completely changes your how you
- 1:00:14think about things and you really just
- 1:00:16care about like what your your children
- 1:00:19think about you and your your partner
- 1:00:21thinks about you and what your family
- 1:00:23thinks about you and that becomes
- 1:00:26so important. Your last dying [music]
- 1:00:28thought won't be, man, wonder what that
- 1:00:31Sand Hill Road BC thought of me in that
- 1:00:33pitch. Well, my last dying thought, I'll
- 1:00:36have agents running a loop anyways. So,
- 1:00:39I'll be, you know, hope I'll be making
- 1:00:40money when I'm dead. [laughter]
- 1:00:43>> Hey, appreciate you, man. Thanks for
- 1:00:45having me.
- 1:00:53>> Give it
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