Latest / AI for Founders with Ryan Estes / Are you building a team of AI passengers coasting toward irrelevance?
Transcript
- 0:00Stop hiring AI passengers. They're dead weight.
- 0:03If your team says well this is what AI thinks, fire them.
- 0:07Here's why. 2 billion people use AI every day, but they won't pay
- 0:10a dime for it. That means enterprise has to
- 0:13foot the entire bill, and right now they're hemorrhaging cash on
- 0:16$30.00 a month seats that nobody's actually using.
- 0:20The brutal truth? CEO spend a year bragging about
- 0:23being AI first while only 10% of employees touch the tools.
- 0:27The rest are paralyzed, terrified.
- 0:29They're automating themselves into unemployment.
- 0:32But the smartest founders aren't just deploying AI, they're
- 0:35building companies where 32 people do the work of 45.
- 0:38The secret weapon? They demand AI drivers, not AI
- 0:42passengers. No cutting and pasting, no AI
- 0:46said to do this. You own the decision, you own
- 0:48the conviction. Because when you hit turbulence
- 0:51and you will get a rally behind, well, the chatbot thought it was
- 0:54a good idea. So ask yourself, are you
- 0:56building a team of AI drivers who own their outcomes or AI
- 1:00passengers coasting towards relevance?
- 1:03Welcome to AI for founders. I'm Ryan Estes, you just learned
- 1:06the enterprise adoption playbook from Gregory Shove, 7 times
- 1:10founder, 250 million in exits and the guy solving billion
- 1:14dollar question. How do you get big companies to
- 1:17actually use AI? You can get the full playbook at
- 1:20AI for founders.co.weeklyinsightsthathaveyourcompetitorswonderinghowyoureshipping.threetimesfastersubscribebeforeyourcompetitiondoesthatsthenewsletter@aiforfounders.co.
- 1:30And if this hits different, leave give a review.
- 1:32Podcasts run on ratings like startups run on Cafe.
- 1:36This episode is brought to you by Kickcaster, the premier
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- 1:58That's Kickcaster by MO Burst. All right, Greg, welcome to the
- 2:18show. Thank you so much for joining
- 2:19me. Thank you, Ryan for the
- 2:21invitation. Glad to be here.
- 2:23It's my pleasure and there's a lot of ways this conversation is
- 2:26going to go, but I I saw a great entry point because I saw you
- 2:29did an episode. I listened to some of it with
- 2:32Code story, Noah's a buddy of mine and one thing stuck out.
- 2:36It said it talked to you're an enthusiast for Argentinian BBQ.
- 2:43Yeah, I am. I just love cooking over wood.
- 2:47I just think, you know, I love fire.
- 2:49I love the smell of fire and wood.
- 2:51And so my last, my last couple of is not the current one.
- 2:55I just moved to San Francisco, but the last two or three houses
- 2:59I've built these Argentinian grills.
- 3:02And yeah, you know, I just think it's great to, it attracts
- 3:05people and you hang around the fire and and it just beats
- 3:09propane. Yeah, I'm with you, man.
- 3:11I'm a big griller smoker, you know, I love it.
- 3:14Mrs. Estes is like, when's dinner?
- 3:16I was like meats out at 11, you know, like what are we talking
- 3:19about? Get some appetizers.
- 3:22We'll be OK. But I, I wasn't aware
- 3:24Argentinian BBQ. So this is like if I'm used to
- 3:27like, I like Texas BBQ, you know, and so you've got the big
- 3:30drums and you know, it's, it's all condensed.
- 3:33Like, is it, is it correct to assume the Argentinian BBQ is
- 3:36like it's open? It's a more like a.
- 3:38Yeah, yeah, big, flat, big flat, open grills at a slight incline.
- 3:42So the fat will roll down into a tray that collects the fat and
- 3:46it's got a big crank handle. You basically control
- 3:49temperature by raising or you're lowering, you know, the grill
- 3:53what's what's particular about Argentinian grilling if you're
- 3:57using that kind of meat, which is really lean, right?
- 4:01The equivalent would be sort of grass fed grass finished beef
- 4:04here in the US is it's so lean you can't overcook it and you
- 4:07can't use too high a heat. So typically low temperature,
- 4:13you know, sear, sear fast and then raise the grill and cook
- 4:16slow. Otherwise you're going to be
- 4:18eating pretty tough meat if you're using that, you know,
- 4:21that kind of meat also, you know, also great for veg and
- 4:24just I, we put everything, I'll do it, I'll do anything and
- 4:26everything on the grill. Just get that smoke on it.
- 4:29Love it. And you know.
- 4:31It's cool. I, I moved recently, I moved a
- 4:33little bit further down South into the sticks and I had to
- 4:36make a tough decision because the kitchen is kind of on the
- 4:38second level and there's like a little balcony out there.
- 4:41So I was going to put like the, the whole rig down there, but I
- 4:45kind of lazy, you know, so I don't want to necessarily like
- 4:47be going up and down the stairs. So I was like, well, got this
- 4:50balcony. So I got an electric smoker, an
- 4:54electric griddle, which is kind of sacrilege, you know, to the
- 4:58people of Argentina, like, please forgive me for that, but
- 5:01man, it actually puts out a pretty good.
- 5:03Product. Yeah, No, I I had an electric
- 5:04smoker for a while. For a bunch of years.
- 5:06I loved it, I thought. It was great.
- 5:08Great. Yeah.
- 5:08You know the reverse here. It's no problem at all.
- 5:11Yeah, yeah, totally great. Greg, let's kind of take a dive
- 5:16and. Now let's talk about AI exactly.
- 5:19I want to talk to you about AI BBQ smokers.
- 5:22There you go. Yeah, I got, I've got, I got a
- 5:25business plan. I'm looking for some seed
- 5:26capital. Yeah, exactly.
- 5:29Amazing. No, I'm excited to have a
- 5:31conversation with you largely because you know, you're, you're
- 5:34well versed with multiple XS to the tune of $250 million from
- 5:38what I could see from multiple startups.
- 5:40And it looks like now you're doing some consulting work,
- 5:43particularly with, with enterprise companies.
- 5:46And I, I think that the challenge right now with larger
- 5:49organizations, more established organizations is we all saw 2025
- 5:53exploding with all this opportunity and threats from AI.
- 5:57But now it's starting to be like, OK, how do we, you know,
- 6:00keep guard rails up? And how do we integrate some of
- 6:02these tools into the workforce so our people can be more
- 6:05productive and kind of create new things?
- 6:07So that it's a, it's a perspective we rarely have on
- 6:10this show of kind of like what is enterprise adoption looking
- 6:14like? So maybe we could just start
- 6:15there. Yeah, I mean, the, the, the, the
- 6:18short answer is not good. So let let let's zoom out just
- 6:21for a SEC, right? 2 billion, two billion consumers
- 6:24use and love AI. So that's amazing.
- 6:27They just don't want to pay for it.
- 6:29So, you know, enterprise has to be the, you know, the majority
- 6:33of revenue for AI needs to come from enterprise.
- 6:35If enterprise doesn't pay for AI, these AI companies won't
- 6:38make it. And all the investments that
- 6:40they're making in data centers and, you know, this build out
- 6:43is, is not going to get returned if we can't convince enterprise
- 6:47to turn on AI in a significant way beyond the pilots and the
- 6:49testing and the, you know, all that stuff that's going on.
- 6:53So, yeah, this is a really, I think it's a Crucible moment.
- 6:56I think about this, Ryan, as does the money run out, meaning
- 6:59all the investor capital going into AI, does that run out
- 7:03before or after, you know, enterprises are willing to pay
- 7:07for it? Because again, the AIA companies
- 7:09made a strategic decision, including Open AI, ChatGPT and
- 7:12Tropic, all these guys. They made a really important
- 7:15decision as relates to the consumer business, which was
- 7:17they give away free AI. So once you give away something
- 7:20that's great and free to consumers, it's pretty hard,
- 7:22right to start charging for it. Or of course, you do what Open
- 7:24AI is doing, which is you got to jam some ads.
- 7:27So consumers get it for free, enterprise got to pay.
- 7:30And here's the issue with enterprise.
- 7:32We've been telling workers, the workforce for the last three to
- 7:35four years that AI is coming for their jobs.
- 7:38So like, it's not rocket science here that a lot of people aren't
- 7:42exactly anxious to be using AI tools at work because they've
- 7:45been told and by by the way, their CEO is running around
- 7:48bragging to Wall Street and, you know, a cocktail parties and on
- 7:51the golf course that they're going to be have all this AI and
- 7:54they're going to stop hiring and or they're going to shrink their
- 7:57workforces, which I don't think is happening and probably won't
- 8:00happen nearly to the extent that we think it will in terms of job
- 8:03loss. But we've certainly freaked out
- 8:05a lot of a lot of our workforce around, you know, do I really
- 8:09want to outsource all this work to AI?
- 8:11And if I do like what's going to happen to me?
- 8:13So we're at a we're in a moment where there's a lot of anxiety.
- 8:16There is low proficiency. So it's a kind of a, it's kind
- 8:19of the perfect storm of workers are anxious and they're not very
- 8:22good at understanding how to use AAI for work.
- 8:25They're great at using AI at home, right?
- 8:27Travel planning, parenting advice, you know, health advice,
- 8:31you know, we, we, we're all using AI that way.
- 8:33We bring it into work, say go out, how, how do I use this?
- 8:36And you know, is it reliable? And you know, will I get fired?
- 8:40So I just think we, we got to get through this moment and it's
- 8:42all about, man, I forget CE OS, you know, CE OS, they're
- 8:45delusional. They always are.
- 8:48It's all about managers. Yeah, you know.
- 8:51People who run the teams, you know, and they, the change needs
- 8:54to happen there totally, you know.
- 8:56Let's hang on this point for a minute, too, because this was a
- 8:58big theme of 2025. So much hysteria.
- 9:01And when you see it in hindsight, you see like, it was
- 9:03really kind of like dishonest, you know?
- 9:06It's like the first thing was like AI so powerful that only we
- 9:12can have it and we have to try and create regulatory, you know,
- 9:15bodies around open AI because if anybody else gets this
- 9:18technology, the world's going to end.
- 9:20Now. Not to say that there's not some
- 9:22some dangers, but really they're just looking for like, you know,
- 9:25legislation from the government to increase their monopoly.
- 9:29Or to the second point, AI is going to take our jobs.
- 9:32It's going to take all of our jobs.
- 9:34Well, that was also kind of in hindsight kind of a play to get
- 9:38the expense for some of these tools off of like the PNL for
- 9:42like marketing or whatever technical tools and rather bring
- 9:45it over to HR like, oh, it's not that you're spending 100,000,
- 9:49it's that you're saving 400,000, you know, and so.
- 9:53Yeah, I know. That's right.
- 9:54I mean, I think, I think, yeah, we've had these narratives,
- 9:57these the narratives that the AI industry have been using for
- 10:01their own gain, right? Which is either fundraising,
- 10:03like, like this idea of artificial general intelligence,
- 10:05AGI, like who, who, what the hell is that anyway?
- 10:08And we don't even know what it is.
- 10:09And, and do we really care? Probably not yet and maybe we
- 10:13will one day, right? But again, it's a fundraising
- 10:14narrative or it's, you know, we're all going to lose our jobs
- 10:17and we're going to be on the beach collecting Ubi.
- 10:19Check. That's another narrative, right?
- 10:21And so on and so on, right. And I think the reality is these
- 10:23tools are pretty good. These technologies are are
- 10:25getting better and yeah, they can help us do knowledge work.
- 10:29And so we should probably figure out how to put them to work and
- 10:33and hopefully gets a little bit of productivity out of it.
- 10:35And then quite frankly, figure out what to do it with the extra
- 10:38hours that we gained. Like if we can save a few hours
- 10:42a week with AI doing grunt work for us, that's great.
- 10:45Then, you know, like, what do you want to do with that time?
- 10:47Maybe you want to go walk the dog or, you know, make dinner
- 10:49for the kids. That's cool, you know.
- 10:52I was hoping it was going to be that, but it it turns out it's
- 10:55not. It just means I'm going to do 10
- 10:57times more and now I have like. I'm going to do more work.
- 10:59I'm just going to get more work done.
- 11:02Yeah, like, exactly. I mean, that's how I as ACEO of
- 11:05a, of an AI company where everybody uses AI all the time.
- 11:09My point of view is if I do, you know, if you just save 10 hours
- 11:11a week, Yeah, Work, work, you know, please 10 hours.
- 11:14Yeah. Don't, don't, don't go walk the
- 11:16dog or take a yoga class. Totally.
- 11:18But you know, it's easier for startups, right?
- 11:20Because there's always, if you're a startup or a small
- 11:22business or a side hustler or an entrepreneur, your To Do List is
- 11:26endless, endless. So you really don't want, you
- 11:29don't hesitate trying to try trying out AI because if AI can
- 11:32be helpful to you, you know that's great because you got
- 11:35like an endless To Do List, right?
- 11:37There's always too much to do. If you work in a big company,
- 11:39it's different, right? You've only got so much to do
- 11:41each week. And again, that's where the
- 11:43anxiety comes from. You know, every marketing
- 11:45department will likely be smaller in three to five years,
- 11:48right? That is a reality.
- 11:49I think of AI. I don't think it's going to be
- 11:51wiped out, but I do think we'll see contraction in some of these
- 11:54functions. Having said that, Ryan, I think
- 11:57if AI makes you more capable, I think we'll see more hiring.
- 12:01Like it's software engineering to me the perfect example.
- 12:04You know, we now know AI makes software engineers way more
- 12:07productive, right? I want more software engineers
- 12:10then I don't want less. Like find ACEO, whoever says my
- 12:14road map is on schedule and like everybody's hitting it's their
- 12:17deadlines for developing new products and new features.
- 12:20The answer is never. That's never happened, right?
- 12:22So if AI makes engineers more productive, frankly, I want
- 12:24more, I want more AI enabled engineers.
- 12:26If AI makes salespeople more productive, give me more
- 12:29salespeople, not less. Like salespeople are revenue
- 12:31generated, so I want more revenue, right?
- 12:34So I think again, I think this whole thing about job loss way
- 12:36overinflated. And I, and I do think we'll see
- 12:39more hiring in certain functions because AI makes those people,
- 12:43you know, that much more effective, you know, more
- 12:45productive. Agree, you know, and it gives
- 12:47people agency across every single domain, which is just
- 12:51another a new entry point for people to become engaged.
- 12:54So if you look at like a couple years ago, the big tech layoffs,
- 12:57you know, that just kind of it was more of a correction really.
- 13:00I mean, I remember at during COVID, I saw this video and it
- 13:04was 2 project managers and these two young gals and they're like
- 13:09at the pool and they're like, yeah, we're project managers and
- 13:12they're, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I remember
- 13:13that. You know, and, or there's like
- 13:15that classic job or that classic book bullshit jobs where it was
- 13:19just talking about the the glut that happens.
- 13:22And like, you know, tech will kind of ebb and flow.
- 13:24And when it's it's flowing, like they're just scooping up talent
- 13:28and they're just kind of sequestering them somewhere.
- 13:29They're like, we don't really. Have they're parking talent.
- 13:32Yeah, yeah. We don't really have a job for
- 13:34you. So just kind of do stuff I don't
- 13:36know, show up or don't like, whatever.
- 13:39Yeah, make, yeah. Make decks, yeah.
- 13:40And so you have this whole portion of the workforce that is
- 13:44underemployed, which is kind of the most soul sucking, demeaning
- 13:47thing you can possibly have. Where where now if you have new
- 13:50tools, it's like, oh, there's whole new sectors of kind of
- 13:53work that can be done. Not only that, but you can work
- 13:55at an incredible clip and you have like the because the pace
- 13:59is so high, it's very satisfying, you know, so.
- 14:02Yeah, no, I agree. I think it's great if you're
- 14:04ambitious. I think these tools are great.
- 14:06I mean, to your point, I called jumping capability boundaries.
- 14:09I think AI allows people, people and teams and then even
- 14:13companies, right, to jump what I call capability boundaries.
- 14:16Meaning, you know, we've got limitations right around our own
- 14:18skills, our own experience. And I think AI just allows us to
- 14:22flex and allows A-Team to flex and then a company to flex,
- 14:25right? You can just put you can punch
- 14:27above your weight class with AII think it's the best thing for
- 14:30young people. This idea that AI is
- 14:32disadvantaging young people and some of the data seems to be
- 14:36indicating that in terms of hiring data, I'm not sure it's
- 14:38all AI related, but listen that that could be the impact of AI
- 14:43in in part. I actually think the opposite
- 14:45thing. You know, I think it's great for
- 14:46young people. Like young people don't have a
- 14:49lot of experience and really only have, you know, a small a
- 14:52less number of skills, right, less skills.
- 14:54And I think AI kind of, you know, bulks you up, you know, I
- 14:56think it's testosterone for the brain.
- 14:59So, you know, I encourage young people like just just let it RIP
- 15:04with AI and kind of round yourself out, you know, be a
- 15:07storyteller that can do data analysis, you know, be be a
- 15:11product manager that can now build prototypes and walk over
- 15:15to engineers and say, I got a working prototype.
- 15:17I mean, I got a working app already like, you know, let's
- 15:19that that kind of thing, like really flex.
- 15:22Totally. It's a major.
- 15:22It's a, it's a really because there is so much apprehension
- 15:26around AI. Obviously we're evangelists
- 15:29right around here. We live in a bubble.
- 15:31But like, I really try and push that to friends and family as
- 15:34much as I can. Case in point, our #1 fan of the
- 15:37show, my daughter who's studying finance at Mizzou.
- 15:41Shout out. But she, she, she listens to the
- 15:42show. What's up, Boo?
- 15:45But, you know, years ago when Chachi BT came out and the
- 15:47students immediately jumped on that, you know, it's going to,
- 15:51it's going to either destroy education or just make education
- 15:54change forever. And I was talking to her about
- 15:57it. You know, I, I get her the pro
- 15:58model. I'm like, OK, sweetheart, like
- 16:00this is what it is now. Like no longer are you a writer,
- 16:03now you're an editor, you know, so the the first thing you want
- 16:07to do is be able to beat the test so that if they can tell
- 16:11that you know, you're writing with ChatGPT and they and they
- 16:14banned it, then obviously you're going to pay a penalty.
- 16:16So there's a little bit of game theory here, but from standpoint
- 16:20of her education, which I'm obviously very invested in, I
- 16:22think the editing process actually is better and more
- 16:25stimulating for the brain, at least for me.
- 16:28If I'm sitting down to try and write something with a blank
- 16:30page, I'm going to get stuck on the first paragraph first thing.
- 16:34Rather, if I can begin with the 1000 words and begin editing and
- 16:37being like arranging and adding anecdotes and things like that,
- 16:41I'm much more engaged with with the material itself, you know,
- 16:45so. Yeah, I, I, I, I agree, Although
- 16:47I think, I think it's early to say meaning like there's a risk,
- 16:51right, that we do cognitively offload too much.
- 16:54And I, I think it's almost like, yeah, we're going to have to
- 16:58experiment and learn into this. Like the whole, the whole all of
- 17:00humanity will, right. I mean, this is a giant
- 17:03experiment, right? On, on, on, on on the human race
- 17:07is how I think about AI and we are going to have to be open
- 17:09minded around what works and what doesn't work.
- 17:11There are some days where I want to struggle with the blank page,
- 17:14Ryan and force myself to get some thoughts down.
- 17:16There are other days where like I don't want to and you're
- 17:18right, I think it's faster and probably better to, to kind of
- 17:21get the 1000 words and start editing.
- 17:23It's probably a mix. I, I, I do think in, in five
- 17:26years, just like we've done with social media and, and, and
- 17:28devices and, you know, our phones, we're going to want, you
- 17:32know, AI free days or AI free hours or AI free weekends.
- 17:36I think these, these technologies are very addictive.
- 17:39And, and listen, we know what Silicon Valley is all about.
- 17:42It's, you know, the subscription business model, which is what
- 17:44most of Silicon Valley now lives off and not just Silicon Valley,
- 17:48of course, Netflix, Amazon Prime, but you know, it's
- 17:50subscription is a, is a fancy word for addiction.
- 17:54And so, you know, these AIS, the makers of these AIS are going to
- 17:58make them very seductive. And you know, we're going to
- 18:01love working with these AIS. We, we do already, right.
- 18:04So we're going to have to watch that.
- 18:06I don't want, I describe it, Ryan, as AI drivers and AI
- 18:09passengers. And we're very clear when we do
- 18:12our hiring and onboarding of new employees.
- 18:14And then, you know, we, we have this conversation a lot
- 18:17internally with the team around do not be an AI passenger.
- 18:20If you're just cutting and pasting or lightly editing, you
- 18:23know, work from AI, that's not going to end well for you or,
- 18:26or, or be good for the company. So don't do that like you are be
- 18:29an AI driver. AI drivers, you know, you own
- 18:32the task, you own the output, you know which AIS to use, you
- 18:36know how to use the AIS and all that, you know all that.
- 18:39But it don't be cut and pasting AI and it's not if you're going
- 18:42to work for me, you know, it's, it's a one strike.
- 18:46We have a one strike. Cultures relates to that.
- 18:48And when when someone says to me, this is what AI thinks, or
- 18:50we're going to do this because it's what AI says, I'm like, OK,
- 18:53I don't pay you to tell me what AI says.
- 18:54I I can get that right for free. So, yeah, you know, we we got to
- 18:59figure this out, which is, you know, what's that, what's that
- 19:02blend right of, of man and machine.
- 19:07Love it. That seems like a sticky area.
- 19:08I want to do that but you said something too that kind of
- 19:10brought something up. You said subscription is a fancy
- 19:14word for saying addiction. You know I am subscribed on
- 19:18Amazon to post oak chips, so you know, maybe that's my BBQ
- 19:23addiction. You know what?
- 19:25I yeah, you got, you got, you got BBQ addiction right there.
- 19:27Dude, listen, we all, we all, we all have our addictions.
- 19:30That's not a bad one considering the other options.
- 19:33But yeah, listen, you know, subscription business models are
- 19:36about, you know, you got you, you know, we want you to hang
- 19:38around for seven plus years. And so, and if you don't have
- 19:42this, that kind of business model, you know, obviously
- 19:45Instagram and social media is not, it's an ad model, but it's
- 19:49sort of the same. You know, you're looking for the
- 19:51same outcome and the outcome is we want you coming back a lot.
- 19:54This is why GPT is so seductive when it says, hey, that was, you
- 19:58know, a Greg, you're so smart, you know, that was real.
- 20:01You know, you're really top of your class.
- 20:03And B, do you want me to make the PDF?
- 20:05Do you want me to create the presentation?
- 20:06Do you want me to do the, the next thing?
- 20:08Right? It's like, yeah, sure, go ahead
- 20:10and do that. Or, you know, the AIS are
- 20:12getting very good at just keeping us engaged and saying,
- 20:16well, I'll keep working with you on this and give you more value,
- 20:19which means you'll spend more time and, you know, you're just
- 20:21developing A cognitive dependency.
- 20:25Again, that's a fancy word if you went to college for
- 20:28addiction. And so that's, you know, that's
- 20:31what's going on here. And we got, we just got to be,
- 20:33we got to be careful about it. Having said that, that it's not
- 20:36a reason not to use the technologies, right.
- 20:38We can't we, we got to find the middle ground.
- 20:40We and too much of the AI conversation is it's a disaster.
- 20:43It's terrible. It's going to be addictive and
- 20:45or like stay away from it, you know, don't touch it.
- 20:48It's you know, that's not, neither are accurate and the
- 20:51right extreme. We need to find this middle
- 20:53path, being pragmatic, being optimistic, you know, being
- 20:58focused on getting something good out of it and managing some
- 21:01of the downside, right? It seemed like we kind of
- 21:03touched a nerve there though as far as the cognitive offloading,
- 21:06particularly when you said like, hey, we got a one strike policy.
- 21:08I don't want to know what AI said.
- 21:10So that seems pretty raw, you know, So what is it about
- 21:14cognitive offloading or just like getting a summary from AI
- 21:19where you're like, this is this is not passable.
- 21:21What, what are you looking? What if the AI is better than
- 21:24what their idea was? Yeah, that's a, that's a fair,
- 21:27that's a great question. And and we can imagine where AIS
- 21:30do get that good, right. And this this of course, is what
- 21:33the big tech is telling us, meaning or Silicon Valley, like
- 21:37AGI is, is this moment where the AIS are actually smarter than
- 21:40us. So it would be irresponsible, in
- 21:42fact, to listen to the human. You should be listening to the
- 21:45AI because the AI is so smart. Listen.
- 21:46Yeah, but we're not there yet. And my, my perspective is AISAIS
- 21:50don't have the most recent data. They don't have context.
- 21:54They don't know what's most important to us in the moment.
- 21:56And so, yeah, you can get AI pretty close, I think to and
- 22:00will certainly be helpful. But when it comes to making a
- 22:03decision and, and it might be the decision that AI concurs
- 22:07with or even suggested to you, but I want you to own it.
- 22:10So it's, to me it's all more about ownership as it is what is
- 22:14the decision or the idea? Because I don't want it to be
- 22:16like, I, I kind of sort of believe this and it's a is idea.
- 22:19So this is the one I'm submitting.
- 22:20Like, no, that's, I mean, I'm paying you to make the decision
- 22:24and to have the conviction. Because by the way, most
- 22:26especially in a small company or startup, most of this shit
- 22:28doesn't work out. So as soon as you bump into
- 22:30some, you know, at turbulence or, you know, or, or, or some
- 22:34bumps in the road, I need you to have conviction that you're
- 22:36doing the right thing. Not that you know AI told you to
- 22:39do this because you're going to have to work it out and figure
- 22:41it out because you know, it's never, never a smooth Rd.
- 22:44It's, you know, AI slop. It's like, it's like that
- 22:46classic definition of pornography.
- 22:48It's like, I know when I see it, you know what I mean?
- 22:51It's something's like artistic and then something's pornography
- 22:55and like AI slop is very similar and I, I don't know exactly what
- 22:59the attributes are, but I can tell if someone's passing AI as
- 23:02instead of using it has this weird domestication to it.
- 23:06You know, like, you know, like a Bunny, a wild Bunny gets
- 23:09domesticated. It's like ears fall and it's
- 23:11eyes dull. Like you get that and you're
- 23:13like, no, you know, this is not it.
- 23:16You know what I mean? Yeah, that's, that's, that's a
- 23:19great way to think about. I think that's right.
- 23:20And so like don't, don't pass that work off, you know, or do
- 23:25so at your own risk. You know, quick, quick story for
- 23:28you too, that with the cognitive offload, that was something I
- 23:31was holding really close to the chest too, is like, I want to
- 23:33make sure I'm retaining my ideas and you're precious to me as
- 23:37well. They should be.
- 23:38And I started to loosen up a little bit.
- 23:41Largely I'll tell you a story. So we're we're flying to San
- 23:44Diego through with the layover in Vegas for some reason.
- 23:47And I was talking to my son. He's like, oh, dad, you're going
- 23:49to gamble. We're going to be there for two
- 23:50hours. I'm like, no son gambling.
- 23:53It's not a good look. It's not a good look, you know,
- 23:55it's the I'm not into it, blah, blah, blah.
- 23:56I'm lying a little bit, you know, and I'm like, you're being
- 24:00a parent. Yeah, yeah, you're being a good
- 24:01parent, Yeah. I was like, watch, I'll show you
- 24:04how fast you can lose 20 bucks. OK, I'm like, I'll go over
- 24:08there, just follow me over there.
- 24:09I'll go to the the slot machine or whatever.
- 24:11I'll put 20 bucks in and watch how fast it goes.
- 24:13I, I put it in Ding, 2000 bucks. I was like, Oh no, this is the
- 24:18worst lesson I ever showed you. Like this, This never happens.
- 24:22What you don't want to do is when the first time like this is
- 24:24bad for you. But you know, the where with the
- 24:27kind of analogy is, it's like once I kind of loosened up a
- 24:29little bit and I was like, no, actually I'm just going to go in
- 24:32with a set of parameters and have a conversation with Claude
- 24:35or, or open AI or whatever and just be like, Hey, help me think
- 24:38through these things. So like kind of dispersing some
- 24:41of that cognitive load. And what I found is like gets
- 24:44every once in a while you hit that jackpot and you're like,
- 24:46oh, actually I didn't think about that.
- 24:49Now let me take that and put it in this direction.
- 24:51So you become kind of an arbiter, you know, like there
- 24:55was like. A.
- 24:56There was like a saying that like, art in the future won't be
- 24:59actually producing anything. It's just acknowledging when art
- 25:02exists, you know, right? Like, yeah, judging what is art
- 25:06and what is not. Yeah.
- 25:07I think, listen, I think this idea of AI as a thought partner,
- 25:10I think that to me, it's one of the most valuable use cases for
- 25:13AI and in all parts of our lives.
- 25:15And I think you're right. Listen, AI, we all have blind
- 25:18spots, right? We all have bias.
- 25:19We all have a set of experiences.
- 25:20We all make decisions a certain way based on who we are in our
- 25:23lived experience. And I think AI doesn't have any
- 25:26of that in a way, right? It doesn't have the blind spots
- 25:29that we do or that it's got bias for sure.
- 25:31But sort of like it can approach any decision, I think from any
- 25:33angle, especially if you prompt it the right way.
- 25:36And absolutely, you know, I think, I think almost every
- 25:39decisions can be, can be optimized a little bit, probably
- 25:43with AI and or just increase your own confidence in your own
- 25:47decision. Sometimes AI is useful for that,
- 25:49like you've got the right idea and AI can kind of help you
- 25:52confirm that before you go pitch it maybe.
- 25:55Yeah, AI is thought partner, great use case and I think
- 25:58undervalued in business actually.
- 25:59Yeah, 100%. Now I want to talk about section
- 26:02a little bit and you guys see Greg's work at sectionai.com,
- 26:07which is really kind of like this enterprise level AI
- 26:10integration. So when you're brought on
- 26:12initially, what are kind of the pain points that like managers
- 26:15are coming to you to say is there, is it, are there hands in
- 26:17the air? They're like, what do we do or
- 26:19like? Yeah.
- 26:20I mean it's, it's, yeah, our prospects, so to speak.
- 26:22You know, our two best, our customers come from 1:00 and
- 26:242:00 two places. One is they've just signed or
- 26:27about to sign an enterprise wide or team wide agreement with
- 26:31ChatGPT Enterprise Oregon, Microsoft Copilot or you know,
- 26:33Google demo. We don't care, right?
- 26:35And so they're about to make that big investment for 12/24
- 26:37months. In some cases, they've signed a
- 26:39multi year agreement and you know, and these LLMS, these AIS
- 26:42are 30 bucks a month, you know, per employee basically.
- 26:45So it adds up. Or they did that a year ago.
- 26:49And what happened in the in the subsequent year is not much, you
- 26:53know, And because what, and here's what happens, every
- 26:55organization's got 10%, even the federal government of, you know,
- 27:00growth mindset, ambitious, typically younger, but not
- 27:04always, you know, employees that want to figure this out there
- 27:07that we have that level of self motivation.
- 27:09So they get there pretty quickly.
- 27:10It might be 5%, it might be 15 in a startup, it's probably 70%,
- 27:15right? I mean, like you go faster or
- 27:17slower based on, you know, what kind of organization you are and
- 27:20what your culture is. But basically anybody can get,
- 27:22if an organization can't get to 10% of AI adoption, they've got
- 27:25a much bigger problem, right? But assume they can get there,
- 27:28but they get stuck there. So almost all of our prospects,
- 27:31our clients are people that are, are just not getting the value
- 27:34yet that they expected. And they got ACEO again, running
- 27:37around saying, you know, we're AI, we're AI first, we're AI
- 27:40enabled. We're going to slow hiring,
- 27:42we're going to grow with less headcount, all that stuff, you
- 27:45know, and, but the reality is no, after that 10% to get to 30%
- 27:50or 40 or 50%, you know, active monthly, weekly, daily usage,
- 27:54it's a lot harder. And because what the, for the
- 27:56reasons we talked about anxiety and, and kind of resistance and
- 27:59not knowing how to use AI at work.
- 28:01So that's, that's when we get called and we go in, we
- 28:03basically work with clients and we have a software and services
- 28:07model. So I think this is the right
- 28:08model for enterprise AI. I think any startup now just
- 28:12selling software only to the enterprise, it's a tougher sell
- 28:16because he's, he's, these companies don't know how to
- 28:18deploy AI, don't know how to buy it, don't know how to get it
- 28:20working. So I do think the right model if
- 28:22you're an entrepreneur is some sort of, you know, software or
- 28:25even just straight service, like, you know, be be someone
- 28:27that helps companies use AI and get value from it.
- 28:30Those are great businesses right now in terms of unlocking kind
- 28:34of dollars, enterprise dollars. But yeah, so we go in and help
- 28:37companies, small would be a small client for us would be 100
- 28:40employees and a big one will be, you know, thousands or 10s of
- 28:42thousands because they're, they need to get going.
- 28:46You know, if you're spending 30 bucks a month per seat, you
- 28:49know, per employee for ChatGPT, for Enterprise, you know, you
- 28:54want to get value from that, you know?
- 28:56Is the the the big push kind of like technical capabilities,
- 29:01like saying, hey, here's use cases specific for you, here's
- 29:04use cases specifically for you? Or is it more of like a change
- 29:07management, which is kind of easing the humanness of it,
- 29:10where people do have anxieties and you know, they're they're.
- 29:13I think it yeah, great question. It's both.
- 29:15It's both. It is like learn how to use the
- 29:18most powerful parts of the AI. So basically the reasoning
- 29:22models and the problem solving. So not just the superficial sort
- 29:26of summarize my e-mail. So like teach people proficiency
- 29:29in sort of advanced capabilities and at the same time show them
- 29:34how to apply that to their job. So we use software for that.
- 29:37So our, our, the way we teach AI and upscale the workforce is we
- 29:41use, we use AI and we built a platform called Prof AI, which
- 29:45is powered by AI. So what's amazing about that?
- 29:48And by the way, once you've had an educational experience that's
- 29:50powered by AII, don't think it matters which one.
- 29:53But once you've had one of those experiences where the, the, the
- 29:56educational, the learning is powered by AI, it's immediately
- 30:00personalized. And as soon as you have one of
- 30:02those experiences, you're not going to go back and do it the
- 30:04other way. You're not going to, you know,
- 30:06watch courses on Udemy or Coursera or whatever like that
- 30:09whole, you know, those days are gone.
- 30:11And once you've have interacted with a coach or a tutor, an AI
- 30:15coach or tutor and realize they can on the fly customize the
- 30:20content, the curriculum, the exercises that you know, for you
- 30:23based on who you are and where you live and the language and
- 30:26the job, whatever. It's kind of amazing.
- 30:29It's like, OK, this is the way learning should be, whether
- 30:31you're in high school or certainly for enterprise, for
- 30:33like, you know, worker upskilling.
- 30:35It's like so much better. So yeah, we we help people find
- 30:40the right use cases for their own job based on where they work
- 30:44and what what role they're in. Incredible.
- 30:47I would love to hear if there's examples of people who are
- 30:50really killing it. You know, I've seen
- 30:52organizations doing N 8 N automations that have like 80
- 30:56steps and it's just like, my goodness, you know, and they
- 30:59output like some really incredible stuff.
- 31:01Or, or I've seen organizations that were doing a go to market
- 31:05push by creating a product with multiple VPNs to, to go and do
- 31:11commenting on YouTube videos. Like just the, the capability is
- 31:16really kind of just like limited by your imagination of like the
- 31:20different kind of experiments and the different kinds of
- 31:22things you can do. Is there any organizations that
- 31:25are kind of in that advanced phase where they're, they maybe
- 31:28they've integrated into the LLMS and their workflows, but now
- 31:31they're doing like big automations and actually
- 31:33creating custom products in order to kind of like try new
- 31:37experiments? Yeah, the, the, there are a
- 31:40bunch and no one's talking about, you know what my take on
- 31:44one of the challenges we have right now with enterprise AI is
- 31:46no one's talking about it basically meaning if it's not
- 31:49working, you're not really bragging about that, right,
- 31:51Because it's not working. And that's a lot of, you see a
- 31:53lot of the research around enterprise pilots that are
- 31:56stalling out or not making it a production.
- 31:58And if it's really working, like I've talked to clients of ours
- 32:01who said you're under NDA, we'll tell you about this agent that
- 32:04we built, but you know, you can't, we're not talking about
- 32:08it. You're not talking about it.
- 32:09Our CE OS not bragging about it because it is so transformative
- 32:13to the economics of the business or to the you know what,
- 32:16whatever it might be. So I think we are in a tough
- 32:18moment. I the rally is most leaders,
- 32:20even startups, you know, we, we tend to prefer to fast follow.
- 32:25If you think about sort of from a business strategy standpoint,
- 32:28you could make the argument that it's usually better to fast
- 32:30follow rather than be first. You know, being first is, is
- 32:33pretty risky. Sure, there's outsized returns
- 32:35if you, if you're 1st and win, but you know, there's more risk.
- 32:39So we, we tend to like to fast follow as leaders in, in
- 32:41business at least. And that means we're waiting for
- 32:44proof points, we're waiting for data, we're waiting for case
- 32:46studies. And there aren't that many yet.
- 32:49That's the reality. Because I think when it's
- 32:50working, people are keeping it pretty quiet.
- 32:52I'd say, listen, what's going on right now is, as you know, every
- 32:55startup is starting today on the last couple years.
- 32:58They're an AI first organization.
- 33:00I mean that section where 3132 people, we're probably doing the
- 33:04work of 45, you know, we, we, we feel it like not just me, but
- 33:09you know, and because I'm the delusional CEO, but I'd say, you
- 33:12know, my management team would, would say, listen, we're just
- 33:16way more productive, you know, pretty much in every function,
- 33:19sales, marketing, you know, software engineering for sure,
- 33:21right? Because, you know, so, yeah, I,
- 33:23I think what's going on right now is the, the success of AI
- 33:27in, in the startup world in terms of it's, it's, it's
- 33:29enabling founders to build companies and build products and
- 33:32services faster with less, less headcount, less capital.
- 33:35That's great. That's not yet applying to
- 33:37bigger teams and bigger organizations.
- 33:39That's the jump we have to make. Otherwise, you know, again, I, I
- 33:43don't think these AI companies will get the revenue they need.
- 33:45They need, but they need the Boeing's and the Walmarts and
- 33:48the, you know, the big organizations paying for a lot
- 33:50of AI. So it's, it's got to jump from
- 33:53startups to to bigger teams and organizations.
- 33:56It will. I think it's, you know, it's
- 33:57going to take another couple three years, but it will well.
- 34:00There's like just kind of change management of it.
- 34:02There's a thought shift. You know, even as inundated I am
- 34:06with this stuff, you know, I've got 4 terminal instances open.
- 34:09I have Claude, Gemini and GBT are all going just ripping
- 34:14through all this stuff. I talk about AI constantly, but
- 34:17still like it. It's like being AI native it.
- 34:21It really is a cognitive shift. I, I with my daughter, we put a
- 34:27recurring meeting every two weeks where it's like, like
- 34:30literally every problem you have.
- 34:32I want you to think, how do I solve this with AI?
- 34:34Just to like get into the habit of like there has to be
- 34:37something better. For example, you know, we're
- 34:39recording this on the script, which is an amazing, amazing
- 34:43tool and editing tool. And I, I ran into this jam where
- 34:47things weren't syncing up. And so I was like, fine, I'll
- 34:50hit the chat bot. And of course it's, it's AI
- 34:52driven. So you're, you're accustomed to
- 34:54thinking the chat bot, you'd be like, I can't sync the blah,
- 34:57blah, blah. And they're like, we'll get back
- 34:58to you and you're chatting. But no, it's like, oh, I see the
- 35:01problem. It's this, this and this.
- 35:02You want me to fix it? And I'm like, oh hell yeah,
- 35:05yeah. Fix it.
- 35:07And it just fixes it. And you're like, Oh my God, you
- 35:09know it. So, you know, there's.
- 35:11Yeah, I think we're in this again.
- 35:12We're in this really. I mean, I feel the same way as
- 35:15you, meaning I feel like I'm always behind on my AI knowledge
- 35:17and I'm in this all the time. And I run an AI company, right?
- 35:20And, and there's always new tools and new plug insurance and
- 35:23I got to get that working or I got, you know, I got to try
- 35:25that. I think the, the pace of this
- 35:27stuff is kind of overwhelming. I think most of us have day jobs
- 35:30that aren't AI, right? And then we got to do things
- 35:33like, you know, go walk the dog and make dinner for the kids.
- 35:36And yeah, I just, I think we're in a moment where we're starting
- 35:40to see its power in all these unusual places like that, that
- 35:44your example, right? Or we use it for, you know,
- 35:46medical advice or whatever it is.
- 35:49And we like, we have these, oh, shit, this stuff is so good.
- 35:51And it's just going to take a while for it to really
- 35:54consistently appear in our lives at a high level.
- 35:58And we do need the hallucinations to kind of get
- 36:01fixed. I don't know how they get fixed,
- 36:02you know, kind of thing like, you know, but it does feel like
- 36:05to me the error rate or the failure rate still just a little
- 36:07bit too high. It's certainly for mission
- 36:09critical work. You know, it's fine for
- 36:11brainstorming. You know, it's, it's, it's a
- 36:12feature, not a bug if you're brainstorming.
- 36:14But you know, a lot of the time I'm not brainstorming right.
- 36:16I need the right answer or I need the right, you know, I need
- 36:19the right data or the right, right output.
- 36:21So, you know, I think the technology's got to get better
- 36:23too. And yeah, it's, I mean, again,
- 36:27it's just an amazing time. I, you know, I should be
- 36:30retired. And I just felt like this was a
- 36:33wave that I could not sit out. And and I think we do all need
- 36:38to lead in this moment. So I appreciate you and your
- 36:41audience because you know, this is a scary moment and A and a
- 36:46lot going on it kind of not just in the world, but in the world
- 36:50of work and, and the and the impact of these technologies.
- 36:53And so we need people that will figure this out and then
- 36:56frankly, help their neighbor, help their Co worker, help their
- 36:59friend, right, help their kids. You know, I tell a lot of
- 37:02parents, you cannot, you cannot outsource this to the school.
- 37:05If you are a parent of a middle school or high school or a
- 37:07college kid and you're kind of not having a conversation with
- 37:10your kids about this, I think you're being irresponsible and
- 37:12you're and you're not doing your job because, you know, you did
- 37:16not. You shouldn't have outsourced
- 37:17the conversation about sex, drugs, social media, you know,
- 37:21or alcohol to someone else. And you shouldn't outsource the
- 37:24conversation about AI to someone else, especially not the school
- 37:26because they're overwhelmed. I mean, these poor teachers and
- 37:29and administrators, you know, are like deers in a headlight.
- 37:32They don't know what to do. So I think it is our
- 37:35responsibility as parents to help our kids figure this out
- 37:38and at least try to instill some habits in them that that mean
- 37:42they don't just cut and paste from AI.
- 37:45Unfortunately, Listen, the reality is Sam Altman made the
- 37:48great the greatest homework helper in the history of
- 37:51mankind. And that's just that's just the
- 37:55reality of it. And so, yeah, education, when I
- 37:57think about where AI is causing the most chaos, Ryan, like if I
- 38:01had to pick like Ground Zero for the chaos on the ground of AI,
- 38:05it's schools. It's really schools.
- 38:07It is the homework helper, you know, that that we never could
- 38:12have imagined. And it's just really tough, I'm
- 38:15sure on on teachers and and administrators and so on.
- 38:18So I have empathy for them. They won't move fast enough.
- 38:21The unions will get in the way. Like they will create some of
- 38:25the some of the chaos themselves by not really wrapping their
- 38:28heads around this, especially at, you know, tenured teachers
- 38:31and professors. But anyway, you know kids will.
- 38:36Kids will find the path of least resistance because they want to
- 38:38go party and have fun, not not write history essays. 100% All
- 38:42right, We're it's time for the quantum round.
- 38:45Are you ready? Yeah, I'm ready.
- 38:47I don't know what it is. It's scary, but I'm ready.
- 38:49It's terrifying, but at first I I do have to comment.
- 38:52I I like that it was the the list is sex, drugs, alcohol and
- 38:57AI that you have to have conversations.
- 38:59It's in the fun rips, you know. It's in.
- 39:01It's in Good. Exactly.
- 39:03It's in good company, yeah. Exactly.
- 39:05OK, cool. You mentioned retirement and one
- 39:07thing I was looking at your resume, I was just like, God
- 39:10Dang man 7. Times old 7.
- 39:13Times Founders CEOs $250 million in exits, leadership roles at
- 39:18Apple, AOL, Son Microsystems I mean, I already know the answer
- 39:23to this, but what brought you back to the game?
- 39:26I love the game, you know, I love the game.
- 39:29I like building teams. I like building products and
- 39:31services that don't exist. Yeah, I like, I like the
- 39:35financial outcome potential at least it doesn't always happen,
- 39:38but I like that. Yeah.
- 39:40Listen, I'm, I'm, I'm too young to retire.
- 39:43At least that's what I think. And I suck at golf and, you
- 39:46know, and I can't BBQ all day long, right?
- 39:49So yeah, you know, for the foreseeable future, you know,
- 39:54I'll stay in the game, you know? Well, you got you slow cook.
- 39:57You know you slow cook. Yeah, that's true.
- 39:59Exactly. Cool, did I?
- 40:03Did I read correctly? You have 130,000 newsletter
- 40:05subscribers. I do, yeah.
- 40:08Wow, how did you grow with that big?
- 40:11I got lucky just, you know, this, this AI moment, you know,
- 40:15just generate a lot of a lot of interest.
- 40:18Yeah, so and, and we got some and we do a lot of events and
- 40:20marketing. So we pick up we pick up
- 40:22subscribers that way. I I think by the way, just
- 40:26because I know you have a lot of founders in your audience.
- 40:28I think events, both virtual and in person are really
- 40:33underutilized. Enterprise go to market
- 40:36strategy. You know, they are, they are
- 40:38hard to do and they take time and effort.
- 40:40And so they're not easy. I know that.
- 40:42But I just think I just think in this moment of chaos and
- 40:46uncertainty, like getting people together either face to face or
- 40:49on Zoom and offering value when you do that.
- 40:52I don't they don't think it has to be like really expensive
- 40:55venues or anything. I can it can be casual, but high
- 40:57quality. I just think that, you know,
- 41:00your customers or prospects will value it and, and there's not
- 41:04enough of it. So we're like we make a big
- 41:05investment in virtual events and now in person events, small in
- 41:09person events, you know, 5/10/15 people kind of like, you know,
- 41:12like a little mini meetups. I just think they're great.
- 41:15They're great for marketing for marketing and sales for
- 41:18enterprise. Yeah, I selfishly I'm doing an
- 41:21event for the first time, a little bit nervous about it in
- 41:24April. Any tactical advice on selling
- 41:27tickets? Yeah, just basically it's just,
- 41:33it's what you'd expect underpriced over deliver, you
- 41:37know, like just just or, or, or or, you know, price, right.
- 41:41But over delivered just basically and and, and and the
- 41:44over is one of two ways. Some of the little details
- 41:47matter, so avoid some of the, you know, basic mistakes.
- 41:51And then the second is have one piece of content or one guest or
- 41:55one speaker, whatever it is, that just delivers a lot of
- 41:58value. The whole thing doesn't have to
- 41:59deliver a lot of value, but you know, if it's an hour, you know,
- 42:03I have 15 minutes of high value, or if it's two hours, have half
- 42:06an hour of high value. Some of our events are 6 hours
- 42:08long and that's crazy. And a lot of our events are like
- 42:11an hour. And of course, in person,
- 42:12they're typically a couple hours, but just just share
- 42:16something of value that they wouldn't normally get, you know,
- 42:19and people will be grateful. And I think you know it, it
- 42:24pays, you know they'll pay it forward.
- 42:26I love that, you know, the pricing part is kind of
- 42:28challenging because, you know, a plate of brisket and a beer is
- 42:3080 bucks now. So where do we price stuff at?
- 42:36I know it's tough. It's tough.
- 42:38That's why we do virtual events. You got a much, you got to buy
- 42:41your own beer and brisket. We'll just do the content.
- 42:43You know it's. So disgusting someone shows up
- 42:45for a virtual event just like stuffing their face and like oh
- 42:48man. No, we we've seen it all.
- 42:51Believe me, we are. So our events, we, we hosted
- 42:54100,000 people online last year section did 100,000.
- 42:58So we've seen it all. What do your online events look
- 43:00like? They're, they're basically big
- 43:02Zoom events and they're, as I said, if they're the short ones
- 43:05are an hour or around an hour and they're, you know, workshop
- 43:08lecture, a high value keynote kind of presentation.
- 43:11And the long ones are several hours and it's a lot of guest
- 43:14speakers. So basically 20-30 minutes.
- 43:17And the whole, the whole thing is don't pitch.
- 43:18So you don't pitch your product or service and when you have a
- 43:22guest, don't let them pitch their Proctor service, right?
- 43:25Really add value, you know, and if you do that people, if
- 43:29they're interested, they'll find your website and you know,
- 43:31they'll, they'll buy from you. When you're promoting those
- 43:33events, is that mostly through your newsletter?
- 43:35Where? How are you getting the
- 43:36conversion? Yeah, newsletter, we, we do run
- 43:38ads for the big ones to see. You know, sometimes it works,
- 43:41sometimes it's too expensive in terms of cost, cost per
- 43:44registration, right? Or you know, cost per attendee.
- 43:47But mostly newsletter, some ads, and then obviously a little bit
- 43:50of word of mouth. Love it.
- 43:52Do you have a favorite or most catastrophic failure you can
- 43:56share? Oh wow, so many.
- 44:07You know, listen, in most cases, I've been able to pivot out of
- 44:11my failures. And here's my lesson.
- 44:16Don't always do that. Take the failure.
- 44:20I think there's been moments, Ryan, I've been to failure
- 44:22adverse, right, too concerned about reputation, too concerned
- 44:26about having, you know, a loss, you know, on the record.
- 44:30And so I've pivoted and basically launched a new
- 44:33business out of that, what would have been a failure into the
- 44:37kind of a pivot. And they've worked out actually
- 44:39my pivots have been some of my better successes, but they're
- 44:42hard and they're expensive in terms of time.
- 44:46And, you know, because pivoting, you know, taking a team and,
- 44:48and, you know, closing down a business and essentially taking
- 44:51that team and building a new business, which is what I did
- 44:53with section. It's pretty much a, it's, it's
- 44:55100, you know, 100% pivot or, you know, it's a complete pivot.
- 44:59Section was a different business 3, three years ago, completely
- 45:02different business. So, yeah, you know, my lesson on
- 45:06that for other entrepreneurs is sometimes just take the loss and
- 45:09and again, your timing wasn't right.
- 45:11Maybe you didn't execute well, maybe executed great and it was
- 45:14just, you know, you couldn't get product market fit, whatever the
- 45:16reason, just call it a day. And and you know, take a break,
- 45:20you know, for a week, a month, whatever, or longer, depending
- 45:22on, you know, how much of a break you need and then
- 45:24regenerate, restart with a new idea.
- 45:27So yeah, I've avoided some of my biggest failures by pivoting,
- 45:31but I'm not sure I should have. You know, brilliant.
- 45:34I love it. I just looked up and we're just
- 45:35about at time. Greg, this has been awesome.
- 45:38Before I let you out of here, I want to give a shout out to
- 45:41stcode.org. Now, I know this is an
- 45:44organization near and dear to your heart.
- 45:46Will you just kind of give us a breakdown of what they do?
- 45:49Yeah, they're just, they're just helping kids that don't get
- 45:51access to technology and technology skills.
- 45:55Bad access, they take technologies that are donated or
- 45:59they, or, or they, they are able to acquire and they help kids
- 46:02learn how to code and design and, you know, get jobs in the,
- 46:05in the, in the, in the technology economy, right.
- 46:08So I just think we need more diversity in Silicon Valley and
- 46:12in general, we need more people into these, you know, higher
- 46:16value, skilled careers. And so I love what I love what
- 46:20Street Code's doing, and I love the leadership of the
- 46:22organization. Amazing.
- 46:23You know, and one thing that AI is definitely going to do for us
- 46:26is it's democratizing technology.
- 46:29You know, there was a guy who programmed an app on Lovable
- 46:32while he's running a marathon the other day on his phone, you
- 46:36know, so now everybody has a phone.
- 46:38We're talking about 7 billion people, you know, so you can
- 46:42start to build and and do things if with, with these kind of
- 46:45opportunities. So yeah, shout out to
- 46:46stcode.org. Greg, where can people find you
- 46:51and connect with you personally online?
- 46:54Yeah, Greg shove.com or they can find me on LinkedIn.
- 46:56I'm Greg Shove on LinkedIn. You know, just reach out.
- 47:00We'd love to hear from people. Greg, thanks so much for the
- 47:02conversation. I'd love to have you on again.
- 47:04I feel like we barely scratched the surface.
- 47:06I think that's right. I'm happy to come back.
- 47:08Ryan, great to meet you. Appreciate it.
- 47:11Hey founders, let me ask you this, are you building with AI
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