Latest / 10X AI with Julius Neil / How to Build a Business That Doesn't Need You | AI, Systems & Scaling

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How to Build a Business That Doesn't Need You | AI, Systems & Scaling · 10X AI with Julius Neil

• Cory Blumenfeld: AI is making it easier than ever to start a business. It's making it easier than ever to learn. It's making it easier to build simple products, right? It's making it easier to test and iterate. so, you know, in my mind it's this is increasing the speed at which we're able to work. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: if there are founders, entrepreneurs who are listening what would be your advice to be successful in the AI era? Cory Blumenfeld: Yeah, go out there and learn. Learn whatever you can. Do it on your own. Make yourselves like you can you you create your future. You can become highly skilled. It's it's on you and and the opportunity is there. So take that opportunity, go after it, learn. everyone's starting at zero when it comes to AI. And so, you have you have more of an opportunity than ever to to really set yourself apart. people want to deal with people, right? In terms of management, I don't think that the AI comes invol is involved with how we manage individuals just yet. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Hehehe. Good day everyone, I'm here with Corey Blumenfield. He has started five startups and achieved two exits. Not one, but two exits. Raised millions in venture funding and built teams of more than 60 people. All the while repeatedly entering industries he knew nothing about. So, Corey, can you give our viewers and listeners a background of how you did that? How you started from zero to hero? Cory Blumenfeld: Yeah. Yeah. thanks for the introduction, Julius. It's a pleasure to meet you and how's it going, everyone? Yeah, honestly Simple answer. It's just about getting started. I think it t in today's world it's it's so much easier to to get started than we think. All the information you need is at your fingertips, you know, with my first first business. I don't even it's funny 'cause I don't think of it as a business, but the first business that I started that paid for for college, I learned how Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Uh-huh. Really? It paid for your college? Cory Blumenfeld: It paid for my my summer and the college a year. yeah, you know, we were fixing driveways and I saw some folks doing it and and I was like, w I can do this. I got a friend, we watched some YouTube videos and we just we we went to work for the summer. So, you know, that information was there. We learned the next business I Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Wow. Cory Blumenfeld: I was in school to be I wanted to be a doctor. so I was doing health sciences. it was a degree and I took a course in entrepreneurship and I just fell in love with with tech. I was like, I wanna be doing it, but I had no tech experience. I couldn't code and Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Mm-hmm. Cory Blumenfeld: You know, it took me a while, but I found the team and you know, I built a tech business. I I knew nothing about business because I was in school for science. but I learned, that was my MBA and I just did it. No business experience, no tech experience, but I just was passionate, I was driven, right? I had this this idea of what I wanted to do. And then next business, Canada, I'm that's where I'm from. we built this healthcare software, health planning software for financial advisors in the US and we helped people analyze their healthcare costs. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Mm-hmm. Cory Blumenfeld: I became a healthcare expert. I was talking about things like Medicare and the Affordable Care Act. And, you know, I learned how to do that by just reading all the documentation online. The new business I'm in, where we're outsourcing. you know, two years ago I didn't have much experience. I hired a virtual assistant and, you know, I just I realized there was a gap in terms of how people built out process, how people set folks up for success, how they found the right virtual assistant. And Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Mm-hmm. Cory Blumenfeld: You know, I learnt as I as I went along. I also find an I found an amazing partner. and you know, we're building this out together. But yeah, it it just the information is right there and when you start to realize that you have the access to it and that you don't have to be perfect or or ready, you know, you can just figure it out as you go along. It it makes things a lot easier. So yeah, that's that's the simple answer is you gotta get started. Yeah. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: So walk us through, what is the difference between the first exit and your second exit? What's the difference? Is that a different industry? How did you approach the first exit and then the second? Or it's just like a template, like I already did that the first time and then the second time I can do it again. Cory Blumenfeld: Yeah. For Ha ha. Yeah, no, I don't think it's a template. I think, you know, the f the very similar. It's like you get to a point where you f feel like you know, y one, you don't need to be involved in the business. You've you've done what you can. And I think that's hard for a lot of founders, when they're building something, especially in the tech space where you're where you wanna stay in the driver's seat, but sometimes it's best to to hand it off to to someone else who can help you Live your vision. So that's the first thing. The second one, it was just my time. you know, I I wanted to pursue other opportunities, so I exited it and and was bought out. but you know, I think that you know, in terms of the playbook It's all all so different. I think the one thing that I've learned when you're building a business is you build it so you can exit. And the way that you do that is you and this is where where the new business that I'm working on, Blue Moso comes into place. It's you have to be able to delegate everything. Everything needs to be able like the business can't rely on you. You can never exit a business if a business does rely on you, right? Like there has to be systems. in place that'll allow you to exit one day. Otherwise you just have like a high paying job. May it might not even be high paying. You're just s you're stuck. So my biggest takeaway was create systems and a business that doesn't rely on me. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Okay, so you also argue that the founder advantage isn't the knowledge anymore. It's the ability to build systems that learn faster than competitors. How would you describe that in our industry right now in the AI era industry? Cory Blumenfeld: Yeah, I think w AI is making it and tech in general is making it easier than ever to start a business. It's making it easier than ever to learn. It's making it easier to build simple products, right? It's making it easier to test and iterate. so, you know, in my mind it's this is increasing the speed at which we're able to work. It's making individuals more efficient. It's making really good team members exceptional. It's giving people superpowers. And I think, you know, we have to accept and take advantage of these tools and and use them to, you know, build faster, right? To be more effective, more efficient, and to delegate to, right? Like Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Mm-hmm. Cory Blumenfeld: You know, there's also in my mind I I think about, you know, where you're I don't think you're replacing humans. I think it's creating new jobs. And the question is what can AI do and what can a human do? And where does a human need to be in place to run the AI system? So that's how I look at things today in terms of business. This is how I'm I'm using it. yeah. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: So currently in your organization, in your team right now, so you have a 60 plus team, so how do you integrate AI into your system? So is it also like 80 % will be automated and then 20 % will be human, know, human interaction and human judgment? Cory Blumenfeld: Yeah. Yeah, we have virtual assistants, right? And so, you know, the whole thing that we do is we match people to the right virtual assistant. Now, what the virtual assistants, what we want is for them to be AI ready, right? So when someone brings on a virtual assistant, this individual should be like the orchestrator of the different systems that they use. They're coming in to help the individual deal with, you know, their operations, admin work. And a lot of that work that they're doing for clients r can be done using AI tools, right? So the individuals that we work with, we want them to be Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Mm-hmm. Cory Blumenfeld: able to manage and run those systems. We want them to be the orchestrator, you know, that human in the loop. so, you know, for us, we think we're creating a new rule. Like that's how I'm looking at. Like we are making sure that individuals are AI readied. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: huh. Cory Blumenfeld: And that they can come into an organization or work with a business owner and they can support the management of the tools, the systems that are being built. so for us, you know, we're not thinking as much, you know, how do we replace humans versus with AI with the individuals? Now internally, you know, we're focused, you know, how we build websites, right? Like how we make changes, how we build out different processes to like collect data, to analyze data. a lot of that is being done using AI systems. The cool thing is the business that we have was started during this AI boom, right? So a lot of these systems that we built out Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Mm-hmm. Cory Blumenfeld: We're created with that in mind. We're not replacing anyone and we're not thinking about replacing anyone. What we're actually doing is is really focused on bringing on people that know how to work with these systems, how to be effective with AI tools. And I guess, you know, that's the advantage of starting the business while, you know, a lot of these tools were being rolled out. We don't have to worry about replacing anyone because that's not what we want. We actually want more individuals that can use AI and can excel with it. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Okay, so if I'm an entrepreneur and I wanted to get their services, what are the type of services that you can offer me? For example, I'm in a tech business. yeah, something like that. Cory Blumenfeld: Yeah. Yeah, so you know, it really it really depends on the individual. Let's say it's the founder. going back to the point I was saying, like in my mind, when you're building a business, I'd say a hundred percent of the stuff that you do should be able to be delegated. I know that it you know, in theory, it's not it doesn't always feel like that. You wanna build something to exit, it needs to be you need to be able to delegate it. So What are we helping folks do today? It's for business owners and founders, we are helping them delegate some of the admin work that they don't need to be doing. So they can focus on doing things that help them grow the business or focus on getting time back for their personal lives. so that's how you know what we're focused on. What that means is for business owners. They usually come to us and say, I have certain tasks that I want to hand off or delegate. and we'll create a placement, like, you know, we'll we'll create kind of like a job description in a way. And then what we do internally is we have access to a talent pool of individuals. And what we focus on doing is matching people, matching business owners and founders to the right individual who have the skill set that they need, the work style, communication style, That they they also match well with and will vibe with, and then we find the right person for the rule. Okay, so that means if someone comes to us and says, I have a lot of marketing work that needs to be delegated, we'll find someone that has that marketing experience. Let's say someone wants to delegate social media management, we'll find someone that can excel in social media management, but also has the right personality, communication style, and work style to to work with that individual or that company and that manager. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Thank Okay, so you basically say that you have all these virtual assistants that you offer the services for to different founders who have different pain points. So basically, all your VAs are what we call this AI fluent. So they use AI to do their job. And then maybe a certain portion of it will be on the creative side, for example, the social media marketing. and then the generation of the photos and all that. Are these all disclosed to your clients that you're using AI, for example, for different things? Cory Blumenfeld: Yeah. I think for a lot of the clients that we have right now, right? The clients so the tools and the systems that are being used for for with the VAs are the client systems. Right? So they're the VAs are coming and working for the client and using their systems. that's how how we do it. So many of the systems that are being used are are for for the client. I think there's an expectation in today's world, especially with the the you know, it's not a hundred percent done by AI. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Hmm. Cory Blumenfeld: I think the human brings the taste. There's research that goes into it. there's a lot of additional steps. So yes, the clients, you know the clients are the ones usually building the systems for the VAs, right? So they have their systems that the VAs are using. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Yeah. Cory Blumenfeld: And then, you know, in terms of the other tasks, I think individuals they expect a certain level of speed, and the only way that that comes is from using a lot of these tools and being more efficient. So yeah, I think that you know, depending on the scenario, it's clear to clients that that AI is being used to facilitate some of the tasks. But you know, the the other thing is our job is to support the VA and and match them to the client and how how they work with the client isn't in our control. you know, we're not saying what you need to do and what you need to use. That's really up to the client how they want to work with their their virtual assistant. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Mm-hmm. Okay. Okay, okay. Do you also use AI matching for clients, for example, or services or variables like that? Or you have your own judgment? You just choose the of people, you have these different types of skills that they have. How do you match those services? Cory Blumenfeld: Yeah. Yeah. Yes, great question. AI doesn't make the final decision. And that's the most important thing, right? There's still a human that that makes the decision. We use AI to help analyze the data quicker to to highlight different data points, but It's to speed up the the the role. So I'd say AI does ninety percent of the job in terms of helping us analyze data. It's the human that's able to interpret the data and then make a final judgment. And that's important when you are making these these judgment calls, that that there's still a human involved, right? Because an AI can make mistakes. So, you know, we use it to speed things up. to to you know, to improve our overall process to collect data, w there still needs to be human judgment in terms of the final decision. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Thank you. Okay, okay. So basically your organization is all remote, right? So you have 60 plus, 60 plus VS all remote. So how does that AI change the remote employee management? Cory Blumenfeld: Yeah, I I think that this is one thing where AI may not be like people want to deal with people, right? In terms of management, I don't think that the AI comes invol is involved with how we manage individuals just yet. Maybe it can be in the future. but Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Hehehe. Cory Blumenfeld: AI is making it easier for us to do work. It's making it easier for us to execute on different things, but it's not making it easier for us to manage people. so you know, there's probably different things that could do it, but you know, we're early in the company's development, and I'd say that the management piece still needs to be very human-driven. People want to deal with people. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Okay. So if you are going to, for example, in the future, you see now what are the problems that you're having in your organization. So what do you think is the number one thing that you wanted to automate using AI in your organization in the future? Cory Blumenfeld: one thing that I w I mean, you know, I th think I don't think you can automate a hundred percent of the matching process just terms of selection. But I think that there's a lot of things that can be done in terms of interpreting that data and providing a very good matching process to our our clients. And also supporting the VAs by finding them the right client to work with. I think that's also super important. So in terms of what I want to automate, I'd like to automate more of the process. And then a lot of the I guess the data analysis or how document like how we store data, how you know we manage different processes, you know, the sales pipeline, can we automate how data is stored, how data gets into the CRMs? I would say more system level process and operations, that's how I'm thinking about it. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Okay. Okay, so I have had different types of speakers before I guess in my podcast and some of them focuses more on the culture, some of them focuses more on the tech side and some of them is like hybrid. So where do you think should company first focus? Is it on the tech side or the culture side? Are you building first the culture for the company and how do you do that in your organization or is it on the tech side first? Cory Blumenfeld: Yeah. Yeah, it's interesting. I think it depends on the type of business, right? First off, like But I think that there's nothing like culture, the team is everything, right? And and this one it it really does play into the type of business. We are not a tech tech business, right? we're not raising crazy amounts of venture capital like I've done in the past. So we deal with people, and that means we have to deliver an exceptional service. And the way to deal with deliver an exceptional service, it comes down to Making sure the people that are supporting our clients are happy and k like capable of delivering an exceptional experience. And the way to do that is by treating them right and giving them all the tools and resources they need to be exceptional. So my belief is you put the team first. we're not a tech business, so we're not putting the tech first, we're putting the people first. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Okay. Okay, that's nice. And then since you are having a lot of different types of clients in your business, so you work with hundreds or even maybe thousands of founders or talk to them, founders and entrepreneurs, what changes are coming over the next five years that most people still don't see? Cory Blumenfeld: Yeah. I mean, I was talking about this and I think it's happening now, but I think if you're a business owner, if you are a founder, yeah, I look at myself. I'm not a content creator. I never thought I was a content creator. I'm not but if you're starting a business now Julius Neil Buenconsejo: You Cory Blumenfeld: You need to create content. People buy from people, right? And AI's making it easier to do this, but AI is also making it where people want to have more human interaction. they don't want to be talking to bots. So I think over the you'll start seeing more people being content creators. the great thing is there's a lot of AI tools to make it easy. right? Like that that's the important thing. But, you know, I think that if we're in you're in business, it does like business, if you're an executive, if you Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Yes. Cory Blumenfeld: want to work your way up in in an organization is creating content. and that's why I create content now. But I think that that's w the change we're gonna see. Like it's getting easier to build a business. There's more competition, there's more AI. People want to interact and build relationships with h humans. And so that's you do it through the content. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Hmm. Okay. Okay, it's very interesting that you mentioned about this content and then you said because from my point of view, it's like content is mostly for the founders and you mentioned about if you wanted to go up the ladder in the career in the corporate side, you also have to create content. What do you mean about that? Yeah. Cory Blumenfeld: Yeah. Yeah. Content, you know, you pick a platform and and you share wisdom with folks, you share your experience, you share your learnings. So, you know, content is putting things out there in the world for others to see. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Okay, so it applies both in a founder's and in a corporate life. Corporate in corporate ladder. Cory Blumenfeld: Yeah, I think it applies anywhere r really in in the professional world. You know, anywhere where you want to sell something. Sometimes people are trying to you know, you're getting an you want another job, you need to sell yourself, right? That's what you're doing during during a job interview. You're you're selling yourself and content is a really great way to make that happen. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Okay. I see. Okay. So since you are having different types of services and then different types of entities that you are giving, you are already serving now, so what do you think are the roles that will, for example, disappear in the future based on the data that you're gathering now? Or what are the roles that will explode in demand in the future on the opposite side? Cory Blumenfeld: Yeah. I like to think in terms Yeah. I like to think of what's going to be replaced. I I think there's new rules. There's gonna be enhancements. I do think like repetitive rules that don't need a human doing it, that humans don't like doing, like, you know, just data entry, right? Just copying and pasting, those are probably things that don't need to be done, but there will be new rules that are generated to orchestrate some of these tools. So I don't like to think in turn when there is replacement, right? Or sorry, when the when a rule is being removed. I think there's another rule that's going to take its place. And maybe we don't see that now, but that will happen because someone needs to run these systems, someone needs to make sure they're working. There will always be more work that needs to be done. There will always be something more complex. So I think, you know Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Mm-hmm. Cory Blumenfeld: We will see these these roles evolve. As I said, you know, with AI, it created the need for the human in the loop, the orchestrator of many of these systems. What I can focus on today is building out that role and creating the role. And that that's one of my focus is. How do we create more AI-readied individuals? Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Okay, so if somebody is starting his or her own career in our listening to this podcast, so what is your advice to be able to be competitive in this AI world? Because everybody is going to be content creators, everybody will have to know about AI, and then a lot of the repetitive tasks will, those skills will be displaced by automation and AI. Cory Blumenfeld: Yeah. Yeah. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: If I'm a young person now starting like 23, 24, 25, what should I do to be competitive in this environment now? Cory Blumenfeld: Yeah. I I think about this a lot and I think I I'm either I wrote something or it hasn't been published or I did publish it. No one no one is going to like things aren't easy, right? Like no one is just gonna give you anything anymore. You have to teach yourself. It's easier than ever to teach yourself something, right? You can go into Cloud, Chat GPT, and you can learn. Like you just walk me through something. you know, I want to learn how to do X, Y, and Z. I think individuals need to be more independent. And you know, go and learn stuff. And then when they're applying for jobs, they can show people what they've been able to figure out on their own. But there's so much competition today. I think it's an expectation that individuals are self learning, that they're teaching themselves things, that they are are being independent. so I think that that's something that's really, really important. it just it's so easy to gather information, the information's right there. So I think you know, if I if I was easy, I I'm still young. But like, you know, I look at myself. Like every day I'm going out trying to learn something. I'm trying to learn clawed code. I'm trying to learn how to use all these tools. I'm trying to learn things that I didn't know. I'm trying to learn how to to code, right? Like it makes it so much easier. And so you know, the way I look at things, these someone needs to understand these systems. And someone needs to teach people these systems. The great thing is they're new to everyone, right? Like for most people, they're new. That means, you know, you're at an advantage. Everyone's starting at zero. So go out there and learn them. Don't wait for someone to to teach you them. And I think that's it's like don't wait for someone to teach you. Go out there and learn them. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. All right. Yeah, so there are people who are actually asking me about this also about AI. What are the jobs or industry that's not going to be replaced? But before they were saying the healthcare, but they can see now there are robots who can carry people now in health facility. So there are a lot of things, especially robotics, automation and AI work infused together. I think there's a lot of work that has the potential to be replaced. And that is one thing that we cannot see right now. We don't know where it is going now. Maybe the drivers will be gone in the future because we will all have driverless. I'm not sure how it's going to be implemented. And maybe the nurses will also be replaced by robots. We don't know. But these are the things that we cannot see right now. But in the future, for example, Cory Blumenfeld: Yeah. Yeah. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: What is your take in AI as a counselor, as a best friend or someone that you can talk to? Some people are using AI for therapy. What's your take on that? Cory Blumenfeld: I mean you can. Like I think that I talk to AI, like I have tools that allow me to like talk to my computer. It depends on the situation and how comfortable you are with it. Some people want to talk to another person, right? Especially like a thing like therapy. Some folks may feel comfortable. I think it it really depends on the individual. I think there will be different different support structures that are created and it will be your choice as a consumer to choose what what you prefer. so I'm not gonna be one of those people that says it's impossible Julius Neil Buenconsejo: You Yeah. Cory Blumenfeld: Because it's not. It just comes down to what you prefer. I think something that's gonna happen as there's more AI rolled out is that the human experience, the human touch becomes a more premium service, right? So, you know, I think that AI will reduce the cost of certain things, but you'll you'll have a very automated and very robotic service. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Cory Blumenfeld: Yeah, it might d be good, but it it just won't deliver that human feel. And so some folks may want to sit in the room with with a with a human. You know, maybe there's robots in the future and people wanna, you know. Like but that's the thing, right? I think the human experience becomes a premium feature and then, you know, these automated experiences may may not, you know, and you think in medicine, sure. It may be robots performing surgery and that that's that's great. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: haha Cory Blumenfeld: Right? And then you know, the consultation happens with a human. I think it just comes down to what people prefer, and what they want. Right? Some might one might say, I never want a robot touching me someone might say, I feel safer with a robot. I don't know. it depends on the person. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Okay. Do you think in your industry now, do you think virtual assistant will also be virtual AI assistant in the future? Cory Blumenfeld: think they're already like do you think there'll be a virtual AI that's an a like yeah there's AI agents, there's companies that are working working on it. I think it it's I think that, you know, people are working on AI for for a lot of the different industries, a lot of different jobs. So I I don't think, you know Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Mm-hmm. Cory Blumenfeld: I don't I don't see why it wouldn't be, but I still I see that, you know, there will be different rules for humans and you just need to adapt and ensure that that you're addressing those rules. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Yeah. So for example, if you are going to start, for example, you're not a founder currently in your company, So if you have to start a completely new industry company or company today, so how would you use AI differently than you did two or three years ago? Cory Blumenfeld: How would I use AI differently? it's it's just getting better, right? You can talk to it now. So like we were saying, like you can talk so I think it's just adapting. It's it's being open minded. it's allowing me to make better. How am I using it? I'm just I'm work I know more on how to make it produce better output, right? And I'm gonna continue learning how to do that. I'm gonna continue adapting and not fighting fighting its use. you know, it makes me better as a founder. It makes me better in terms of getting work done. So I I I enjoy that, but yeah, I would say I'm not gonna fight it. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Mm-hmm. Do you think there will be more single founder or one founder company because of AI in the future? More of those. Cory Blumenfeld: Of course. Of course. It's easier than ever to run a business. I think that you know, like you'll still need a team. It depends. If you're building like a SaaS product, sure. it just depends on the business. But obviously I think that there will be more one person businesses. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Okay, okay. Where does AI give founders a false sense of understanding? What do you think? Cory Blumenfeld: Full sense of understanding. I mean you can get whatever information you want at the to like the your fingertips, right? So, you know, you have access to all that information. I don't think it can make decisions for you just yet because it doesn't have enough context, but you can help it find it like get information, find information. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Yes. Mm-hmm. What do you think of, you know, when you use AI, how do you check and balance, for example, the information that you're getting? Of course, it will give you very, very polished answers all the time. And how would you know that all this information is correct or not? How do you do that now? Cory Blumenfeld: Yeah, I d I usually ask it to provide sources if I'm asking for like resour like research. I get it to ask me questions and not make a decision for me. I ask it not to hallucinate or like make up stuff. But you know, I'm not I'm trying not to have it make decisions for me. I'm trying to have it find research and provide evidence. For me, right? But I don't rely on it. I think that's a thing. A lot of folks rely on it for for answers and to make decisions and that's not how I use it. I use it to speed up things, to automate different processes. but yeah, I Yeah. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Okay, okay, okay. So it means that you're using AI just to augment whatever you wanted to decide on. So you're not just outsourcing your brain into the AI. Do most people do. Okay, do this. I'll put everything in the AI. I'll just ask them and then do this, everything, and then the AI decides. So that's a good point. So before AI, I always believed that being a generalist... it's better than being a specialist when it comes to the corporate world because you can just shift wherever you want. So do you think AI makes generally stronger than specialists now? What do you think? Cory Blumenfeld: I pr like I like to pr I like to promote myself as a generalist, yeah. You know. I am a generalist, that's I used to have that on my profile on LinkedIn. yeah. I think there's a need for both, right? A specialist is good for something and a generalist, you know, are great for operations. You know, especially as founders. I think founders need to be generalists. So yeah Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Alright, alright, alright. Yeah, yeah. Cory Blumenfeld: AI makes specialists superhuman. AI makes generalists superhuman. It makes them stronger. And there's different roles in a business. You need a generalist for different things. You need a specialist for different things. So so I don't think one is better than the other. It just depends on the role. and when you need that individual, right? There are gonna be certain stages where you need a specialist, there's gonna be certain stages where you need generalists. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Okay, so as a founder, you've been, you have five companies before, two exits. So what does, what's your definition of scalable founder system? Like you've been done that always, you know, you've been done that in different, in different industries or different, different companies that you had, but it's always, you know, there is system, you already mentioned that. What is the scalable founder system? Cory Blumenfeld: Yeah. Yeah. Business that doesn't rely on you and trying to figure out how you can document everything, create the right process, the right instructions so that you can walk away, so you can take a vacation. Like in my mind, you know, you really have a sustainable business when you're able to take a sick day and not worry that things are gonna fall apart. when you're able to take two weeks off and not worry about your team messing things up because you've set it up to succeed. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Okay, that's good. So going into that, so I'll just ask you, what's the first system you built in your first company? Cory Blumenfeld: First system I don't it's a long time ago. I don't even remember. Sa says how old I am now these days. yeah, like I don't remember the first system. I I know Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Yeah. Anything that you remember in your previous company, the system that you have built for that company, that worked for you. Cory Blumenfeld: I probably didn't build great systems to be honest. Like that was before I was a system like you know, I think now I can speak on what we're doing now. We try to systemize everything, but I think the the thing that the best system is documentation, right? Like how we document things, how we provide instructions to folks. That is probably the best system that we've built or I've built over the years. Just like how things are documented, how we've enforced or how we've Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Hahaha Cory Blumenfeld: educated people on the value of just writing things down and documenting it. That's super important. I learned that from my other businesses. I had a a business partner that was really good at documentation and, you know, it sometimes feels like a lot of additional time just to write down everything and get it out of your head, but it adds a ton of value. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Okay, so also when it comes to scaling companies, so where do you think most founders prematurely scale people instead of the system? most founders like they wanted this. I have a friend before in Singapore. He has like an online travel agency way back. And for him, know, the scale is always hiring more and more people, hundreds of people. So what do you think? What is what? Where do most founders prematurely scale people instead of systems? Because you always mention about systems first. You have to have the system and then scaling that. How did you do that in your previous company? Cory Blumenfeld: Like have the systems we didn't. We just I think sometimes it depends what stage you're at, right? But you know, sometimes it does make sense to just go press forward and build the s system as you go. Like you build the plane while it's flying. I kinda still bring that mindset, right? But I do believe in building the system and thinking of it in terms of a system, in terms of a process. So I think it's having that mindset that we're building a system. We may not know what that system is, right? Don't force a system when you don't know what the system is. but build it as you go. Look for the data points, look at patterns, look for efficiencies, look how you can make th the lives of your team easier. that's how I think in terms of systems now. I don't build the system before I have some data point. I I tend to just to start. you know, and something I s tend to say to the team is like, let's not solve problems. To things we don't know are our problem yet, right? Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Okay, okay, so also when you told me about this, you know, that's being able to go for vacation as a founder. So being able to, you know, being able to have this, you know, this kind of, you know, a feeling that even though you're not there, your company will still work, will still run. So why do founders struggle so much with letting go of decisions even when they have great teams? Cory Blumenfeld: hard. I think it comes from experience, right? Like some the the the founders that do best are the ones that are able to let go. You know, and and there are some founders that are involved in everything. It just it's hard. You see the business as your baby, right? It's a piece of you. So it's hard to to sometimes let go to have someone else watch it. It's important to find a way to build trust. Baby steps, right? For folks that are are struggling to like let go. It's it's you know, sometimes it's having the right people, right? If you don't trust a person, is it the right person? The other time is it's like what can you do to like Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Mm-hmm. Cory Blumenfeld: go of things, right? So it just it's very I don't think there's one one answer to this. It's it's very it's based on the the business owner, and if they're willing, they're open minded to letting go. You have to really want, you have to like really work on on being able to to let go. It's not easy for a lot of folks. I think it's it's just the nature of building a business. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Mm-hmm. How do you think AI will be able to, you know, you know, to bridge the gap between this, you know, emotional anxiety of letting go of your business? How do you think AI can drive that, you know, drive that into, into fruition? Cory Blumenfeld: I don't think it's going to, right? Like again, we can't rely on AI to make decisions for us today. otherwise, you know, what happens, right? Like humans still need to be involved. And I think, you know, the other thing, what's holding AI back, it's just people are scared to let go too, right? Like they don't want to delegate to an AI. But yeah, I I I don't think that AI will help with it. at the core of humans, right? To have ownership of something, to say something's yours, to have conviction over something. So AI doesn't solve this problem, it just gives another thing for humans to not trust, right? Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Yeah, so currently because you are all remote, so how do you manage that? In your previous company, are you also a remote-only company or this is your first time to be all remote? 100 % remote. How do you manage that? Cory Blumenfeld: Yeah, no. My my other company we were building it during the pandemic, so halfway it was remote most of the time. so it's not my first time doing remote c it's just clear communication, writing everything down, you know, having clear priorities, letting everyone know what we're working on. that's the the important thing. It's just making sure that everyone i is on the same page. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: What are the challenges of having a remote team versus having a team on site? Cory Blumenfeld: Yeah, I don't know. I like having a remote team. I think it's for me it's it's better, but you know, if folks will say that you don't get that human-to-human connection and a lot of ideas happen in person. I think, you know, for for folks, it's as a leader, you need to find a way to to adapt to the digital age to working online. So you know, I I prefer online. other people might say different and and that's okay. But I think that Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Mm-hmm. Cory Blumenfeld: you have access to even greater talent when you do work online, when you do have a remote first business. But I do get that there are some businesses that may perform better when people are in person, but for me, I have a remote bit like my business is is remote outsourcing. So it works quite nice for us. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Mm-hmm. There are some points about having a remote team or that's why some companies wanted their teams back because of the over communication. So what does over communication actually mean in a high-performance remote company like yours? Cory Blumenfeld: I think overcommunication is more like micromanagement, right? It's like you're not letting go. You just you're overcommunicating you're communicating from a place of not trusting people. I don't th I I think that it I I say it, overcommunicate. I think overcommunicating is good. Like it's okay, but I think i w what we're really focused on here where it becomes more like it's more of a negative behavior. It's when you're micromanaging where you don't trust the people and you're overcommunicating because you don't trust them. People need reminders. Sometimes, you know, they there's a class I think someone told me it's like five or seven times you have to repeat something for it to stick. So yeah, it's okay to repeat and repeat and repeat. But if it's coming from a place where you just don't trust people, that's where where I think the challenge is. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: How do you manage that on a daily basis? Do you have certain outputs that they have to finish or what is the target every day if you do it when you have this remote thing? Because if they are from the Philippines and you are from Mexico, there is a time difference also. So how do you manage these things? Cory Blumenfeld: Yeah, I think outcomes based is very important, like focused on objectives, outcomes versus tasks and something that we're adapting to all the time. But yeah, like, you know, clearly documenting and having a list of priorities for the day, that's something that we do. And not fo like if you're just doing o like it's n it doesn't come down to the task, I think. I think really having clear objectives and priorities and understanding why that impacts the business is an important thing. And so yeah, that's how we work to like what we work towards with the company, having more of an outcomes based system. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Okay, okay. So how do you manage them? you always via Teams or via Zoom meetings? Cory Blumenfeld: Yeah, w yeah, just more Slack, WhatsApp, Google Meets. Yeah. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Okay, okay. All right. Okay. So what roles do you think would become more important in an AI augmented company? Cory Blumenfeld: Yeah, I think well the human in the loop, the person that orchestrates it, that h helps manage these systems. I think that becomes very important. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: So this, meaning, so if there's a workflow, one workflow, because there are different steps, right? There are different steps of the workflow. So do you think there will be only one generalist, like what you're saying, one generalist for all the workflows, or every step of the way there will be one human in the loop in that project? Cory Blumenfeld: Yeah. I think there's gonna be many folks that will be owning different p it just depends on the size of the business, right? Like bigger businesses will have more. smaller businesses might have fewer, but yeah, I think it just it depends on the size how many clients you're serving, how many different functions and departments you have. So I think it just it it's really dependent on the business size, how many people they're serving. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: I'd like to ask you your take on this because of the organizational chart. So I have previous podcasts. I guess one of them said the organizational chart of the future for AI will be diamond, something like this. And another person said, like, it's going to be flat. What do you think is the future of the organization? Organizational structure in the future in an AI era. Cory Blumenfeld: Yeah, I think well th th every or every I've s I've saw the charts where they show like the different like meta, Amazon everyone has a different organizational structure. So I don't think there's one way or another. There will be w different versions of organizational structures. and I think they will just it will be very similar to how we have them. N I don't see it changing, right? You just reduce the number of touch points in the organization, but yeah, I don't think there's a single shape that I see every d organization will be different. It'll just be different input put. and I think communication and decisions will be more streamlined. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Following up on that because since there are so many news right now that they're saying that most companies in the US I'm not sure in the Philippines or some other parts of the world that most of the companies now are hiring less freshies, less fresh graduates. So do you think companies will hire fewer people in the future or they will hire only better ones? Cory Blumenfeld: I think they're learning like, you know, I think they're just like a headline. people are realizing that, you know, there's a need for humans. I think for for younger folks it goes back to what we what we were saying before that they have to adapt and they have to self learn and they have to teach themselves a lot of these systems. They're new to everyone, so I think that outsourcing is gonna be a an industry that really grows over the next little bit because people are gonna be looking to access people across the globe. So no, I I I think that there are going to be different roles, and we may not see what those roles are just yet, because they haven't been invented yet, but they do exist and will adapt as we we understand what they are. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Okay, so I'm moving on to the, know, as a successful founder of five companies. So how do you personally evaluate whether an opportunity is worth pursuing? Like for example, this one that you started. Cory Blumenfeld: Yeah, you have to test. You have to come up with a hypothesis and you know, you don't start with the company. You start with a a a hypothesis and a validator. Is someone going to pay for for this? you know, so that's how how I evaluate. I I run small tests to see if someone finds value. and then it makes it a lot easier to determine, okay, do I wanna invest a little more time? Do I wanna do this? So You have to really start with with a small hypothesis. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Okay, so in the five companies that you have started, are there markets that you some disruption, that you have to create a disruption in those markets? Because I would like to ask what signals tells you a market is ready for disruption? So when you start something, there are companies or startup companies that aim for disruption. There are companies also just like second mover, third mover, just Cory Blumenfeld: Yeah. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: you know, just wanted a little piece of the pie in the market. So which type of founder are you? Cory Blumenfeld: You always want to feel like you're disrupting something. but sometimes disruption isn't isn't sexy, right? Like it's it's in my mind I'm focused on creating value. you know, I'm not too worried about disrupting anymore when I was younger, yes, but at the end of the day it's Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Yeah. Cory Blumenfeld: create value, how do I support the people that are on my team, right? Like they all have a livelihood. And and for me, yeah, sure. I want to change the system. I want to make sure more virtual assistants have more opportunities, better opportunities, they're treated right. And you could call that disruption, right? But in my mind it's like I'm more focused on creating value. Creating value for the clients, creating value for the team, creating more opportunity. So yeah, changing a system in my mind and that could be disruption, but Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Mm-hmm. Cory Blumenfeld: I am not gonna let disruption guide me. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Okay, so my last question before our 10XA rapid 10XA fire question. So my last question, if there are founders, or if they are first time entrepreneurs who are listening to us right now, so what would be your advice to them to be able to be successful in the AI era? Cory Blumenfeld: Yeah, go out there and learn. Learn whatever you can. Do it on your own. Make yourselves you know, like you can you you create your future. You can become highly skilled. It's it's on you and and the opportunity is there. So take that opportunity, go after it, learn. everyone's starting at zero when it comes to AI. And so, you know, you have you have more of an opportunity than ever to to really set yourself apart. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: All right, that's very nice. So I hope that most of our viewers will find that very inspiring and motivating for them to start their own company. I know that starting a company is very difficult. It's not for everyone, but for those who are listening right now, founders, first-time founders, who wanted to start their own company, listen to Corey. He already had five companies and two exits already, so we can get his advice. So going on to the rapid 10 next time, which is the final... Cory Blumenfeld: Yeah. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: This is the final part of our podcast. This is standard across all my podcasts. I'll ask you 10 questions, personal questions about AI. So what's one AI tool you actually use every day? Cory Blumenfeld: Whisper flow. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Okay, number two, what one task AI has already 10x in your life? Cory Blumenfeld: Analyzing my emails. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Okay, so all right, yeah, I understand that now I can see something In Gmail, they're already analyzing the emails. There's a summary. It's really nice to have that, you instead Cory Blumenfeld: I'm I I mean yeah. Well it's more like building out automations with my emails to like get them into my CRM and everything. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: So what's one human skill AI can ever replace? Cory Blumenfeld: The human experience. The emotion. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: If you could automate one annoying thing forever, what would it be? Cory Blumenfeld: An annoying thing to automate forever. I don't know. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Number five, what's the biggest misconception about AI writing? Cory Blumenfeld: That's gonna replace everything. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: What advice would you give someone who wants to become 10x or 10x better starting today? Cory Blumenfeld: Go out there and learn as much as you can. All that information's at your fingertips. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: What would you tell your younger self about the future? Cory Blumenfeld: I would say go out there and learn as much as you can. No, just, you know, keep going with the flow. keep learning, keep growing. Right. Well I I'd give myself some some who's gonna win the the Super Bowl. I'd tell who the the what stocks to invest in back then. No, I would focus on on just, you know, continuing to grow and being a better self. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Okay, so what's one book, podcast or resource that shape your thinking about AI or innovation? Cory Blumenfeld: Yeah, you know, something that I always come back to for this is the innovator's dilemma. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Okay. If you had to bet on one AI trend that will be massive in three to five years, what is it? Cory Blumenfeld: AI trend. Well I like I mean like more automations. Like just you know, setting up automations, I think, you know, the way that cloud is doing it right now, I see see that being huge and and applying to more more f business owners. You know, cloud code actually like building out custom applications, I see that being really huge and not going anywhere. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Mm-hmm. Okay, so in one sentence, what does 10x mean to you personally? Cory Blumenfeld: It's being being better every single day. You know, it's the atomic habits, they have the one percent better every single day. So this is being ten tim tenx better every single day. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Yeah, yeah. So, all right. So that was the rapid 10x round. So this is the last part of our podcast. And if there are viewers or listeners who are watching now or listening in our podcast, how do they contact you so that they can connect with you or ask you some questions or get your services as well? Cory Blumenfeld: Yeah, you can find me on LinkedIn. You can go to blue moso.com. I have a substack. Come follow me there. I have a podcast that I'm gonna be releasing over the next little bit. so you know, it's taking my timeeback.com or the podcast is taking my time back. Substack is taking my time back too, so going along with that with with a brand. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Okay. Mm-hmm. Alright, thank you very much. I really enjoyed our discussion and also I was amazed of a lot of your insights when it comes to starting your own company, how to disrupt these things and being a founder who has already exited in tech companies, healthcare and all this, you still believe that the future of companies are still the human side. So I believe in that and I also admire that of you and I hope it becomes the future also. there will always be human in the loop, AI will never replace the people in an organization. for everyone, thanks for watching 10xAI. Remember, the future doesn't belong to AI, it belongs to the people who use it. See you next episode. Cory Blumenfeld: Seven.