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AI and the Founder Opportunity (Pt 1 of 4): The Macro, the Opportunity, and the Fear · Founder Unfiltered - What Founders Think But Never Say

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  Welcome to another episode of Founder Unfiltered.
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  My name is Bradley Jacobs. I'm your host, the founder and
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  CEO of my lands. Today is episode one in a four
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  part miniseries on what's coming in the world of AI, how you can
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  think about this and embrace this as a founder, and how I
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  truly believe the world is changing right before our very
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  eyes. So we're going to get right into
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  it. My read on this, and I want to
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  emphasize it's my read. I am a person, a man who's
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  looking at the world, reading the news just like you are, and
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  drawing conclusions based on everything I'm seeing from the
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  front lines. I'm using these AI tools.
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  I'm spending time and energy and money doing training, staying up
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  to date, seeing what's coming, hearing about layoffs.
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  I'm in the same boat you are. So this is my educated take, but
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  it's just my take. So I want to start there.
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  But what I'm seeing is, and we're all seeing it, right?
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  These massive tech companies which completely dominate the
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  market, right? They make up the vast majority
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  of the market cap of the S&P 500 of course of the NASDAQ is that
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  they need, it's simple, they need fewer people to get the job
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  done that they were doing with 10s or hundreds of thousands of
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  employees and they don't they don't need those people anymore.
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  And frankly, we're in the very, very infant early stages of the
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  AI revolution like we are in the first two to three years of
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  this. You can only imagine what this
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  looks like in five or ten years when these AI solutions are
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  infinitely more built out than they are now.
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  This is complete baby stages and we're already seeing these
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  layoffs by the thousands. Certain companies are are laying
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  off thousands and thousands of people.
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  So the question ends up being what happens to those people and
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  what is possible now with AI? So like AI causes all of these
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  layoffs and a lot of people are really, really nervous and
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  fearful about that. I'm just, I'm just losing jobs
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  across the entire economy. And I think that that's
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  misguided. I'm going to be honest.
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  And maybe I'm choosing the optimistic outlook because the
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  pessimistic outcome just doesn't serve anybody to worry about
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  that. Like it just doesn't, it doesn't
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  serve you to be worried about it.
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  So I'm choosing what I truly believe will happen, and it is
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  an optimistic take. And the optimistic take that I
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  have is 1, AI will create tons of jobs, just like the Internet
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  created tons of jobs, or everybody was worried about, you
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  know, even cell phones. There used to be tons of jobs
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  around operating landlines and things like that.
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  Obviously not at the same scale, but every new technology does
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  create jobs. So that is one thing.
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  There's going to be all these new companies that are required
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  to uphold the AI infrastructure, those companies that really
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  don't exist or are in their complete infancy today.
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  They will hire like crazy and they will grow the job force
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  significantly, but I don't think it's going to replace all of the
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  employees currently being laid off today and over the next 5-10
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  years. What I do believe is going to
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  happen is there's this opportunity to go build your own
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  thing as a niche, one or two person or super small headcount
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  business niche offering. Because right now these bigger
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  companies have these somewhat cookie cutter solutions.
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  And the reason that this exists is because historically, it's
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  been challenging and expensive to build software, right?
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  You needed a team, you need a software development background,
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  you needed tons of money, and you don't need those things
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  anymore. And you're going to need them
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  less and less and less as the tools get more mature.
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  So when you have that interest, that expertise in cooking,
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  fitness, beauty, fashion, whatever it is, you can build a
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  custom tailored solution for a very specific niche.
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  So let's think about, you know, a signal, a single pregnant
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  woman in her early 40s and she has all of these needs that
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  another customer might not have. You could build a specific
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  solution for her and her archetype, which might only be
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  I'm going to make it up a few 1000 or 20,000 people, whatever.
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  But you can make them a custom tailored solution.
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  And if you had 100 people and you're charging them 200 bucks a
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  month, right? You're making $20,000 a month.
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  And they don't have custom tailored solutions now because
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  these big businesses don't go serve that population just
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  doesn't make sense. It's not big enough for the big
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  business, but it is big enough for an individual.
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  So that's what I believe is going to happen and it gets me
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  really, really, really excited because we don't need to spend
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  605040 hours a week, which is a huge percentage of our lives
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  being miserable. I get absolutely kills me when
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  people are living for the weekend because you're living
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  for two out of seven days. When you extrapolate that I'm
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  not going to do the math because it actually makes me incredibly
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  uncomfortable and upset is that people are fucking miserable in
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  their lives. And they are doing it because
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  they think they have to and because they're scared.
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  And we're going to talk about the fear in a minute, but I
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  absolutely cannot stand watching people be miserable in jobs that
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  they hate for decades and decades and decades that ends up
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  making up the majority of their life.
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  It just absolutely kills me. And it's it's unnecessary.
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  And I say it's unnecessary, not because it's easy.
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  The alternative, right? Going out on your own, building
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  your own thing, being your own boss is a really challenging
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  path. And I will absolutely
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  acknowledge it is not for everybody.
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  But the alternative of being in a job that you are miserable in
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  just does not make sense to me. Now, if you love your job and
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  you love your coworkers and the stability works for you and you
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  have a great boss and you're behind your company mission and
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  it reaches that level of excitement and fulfillment and
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  connection within you, amazing. Like, great.
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  I'm not saying everybody should quit their job and go out on
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  their own, but I'm saying the people that are miserable, it's
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  just it's not required. You do not have to be miserable.
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  And this is a big, big driving force for me around my lands,
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  around the work that I do, around the work that it will
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  continue to do to really support individuals, entrepreneurs,
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  founders. It's the reason for this
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  podcast, frankly, is because I'm so passionate about this concept
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  and I am building tools to support founders and making the
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  founder journey more sustainable.
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  That's what my Lance is. And my my long term vision is a
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  suite of tools, a movement, workshops, masterminds, speaking
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  books, everything that supports the founder journey.
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  That's what this is about for me.
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  Like I want people living fulfilling, exciting lives,
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  solving problems they really truly care about.
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  That's what life to me. What, what outside of
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  relationships, which is probably the number one thing that makes
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  a life worth living. The second thing is purpose and
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  fulfillment behind what you're doing, what your contribution to
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  the world. So I could go in that tangent
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  for a while, but I'm going to stop there.
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  What prevents most people from going out and following a
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  passion? You can talk about the
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  logistics. Oh, I need the money to do it.
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  I need the space, I need the time.
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  But what really it ends up being is a mindset around fear.
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  It is a fear of rejection, a fear of judgement, a fear of
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  actually making it big and being really successful.
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  Like what does it look like if I have it all And all of those
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  things that there's an imposter thoughts.
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  Imposter syndrome is another really big one.
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  Like why me? To what extent do I have
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  credibility, right? There's incredible amounts of
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  imposter syndrome out there. And the best in the world, the
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  highest performers in the world still have imposter thoughts.
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  And I'm going to just read you 2 quotes.
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  The first one is from Lady Gaga, world renowned performer.
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  Her quote is I still sometimes feel like a loser kid in high
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  school and I just have to pick myself up and tell myself that
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  I'm a superstar every morning so I can get through this day and
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  be for my fans what they need me to be.
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  Another one from Emma Watson, right?
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  World renowned actress. Now when I receive recognition
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  for my acting, I feel incredibly uncomfortable.
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  I tend to turn in on myself. I feel like an imposter.
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  Any moment someone's going to find out I'm a total fraud and
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  that I don't deserve any of what I've achieved.
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  And I share these two quotes with you because it doesn't
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  matter how big and successful you are, every single person on
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  the planet has some version of why me, Some imposter, some self
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  doubt, self judgement. It just exists in all of us.
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  And the people that go out and make it big anyway or add that
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  contribution to the world anyway are the people that acknowledge
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  the fear and do it anyway. They just find a way through it
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  through coaching, through support, through exercises,
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  work, whatever it is. But it's a mindset that says I'm
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  going to go out and do this anyway despite the fear that I
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  have. And for me specifically, my fear
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  is playing a really big game. And what happens if I play a
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  really big game in my life and I impact millions of people?
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  My mind immediately goes to, Oh my God, those are millions of
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  people that I could let down. And that actually has me play a
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  much smaller game in life, which I'm committed to breaking
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  through. I have tons of things in my life
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  that I do, including one big scary thing I do every single
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  day that makes me uncomfortable. It makes my stomach churn.
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  But the reality is, what's the worst that happens?
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  If I ask Tim Ferriss to come on this podcast, the worst he's
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  going to say is either no or completely ignore me.
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  That's the worst. It's like a scary ask, but is it
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  actually have any potential of being harmful?
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  No, it's just I'm taught to play a small game because playing big
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  is scary and exposes me to judgement and rejection and
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  people calling me names and all of those things.
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  At the end of the day, I know I can handle.
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  So it's about being willing to be seen succeeding.
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  It's about willing to play big 'cause I think about my life if
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  I had stayed at Uber, right? I worked at Uber from 2014 until
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  2018 till I was 28 years old. Bradley at 40 years old still
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  working at Uber is a soul crushing thought to me if I'm
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  being totally honest. And it's not 'cause Uber is not
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  a great company and changing the world, it absolutely is, But it
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  is not bringing my unique gifts to the world.
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  And it's not to be arrogant. It's to say like me being on an
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  operations team or leading A-Team at Uber is not bringing
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  what I truly have to bring to the entrepreneurial side of
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  businesses, of the world of supporting people and helping
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  people out of their limiting mindset.
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  And this is one of the biggest things that drives me because I
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  got out of the rat race and I'm still absolutely working on
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  building up my company and my movement and making the impact
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  that I know I'm here to make. And part of that is supporting
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  you in your journey. So right now, this whole series
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  is going to be 4 parts, and it's really about the opportunity
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  that's in front of us. I truly believe the world has
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  absolutely changed in all of our favors.
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  I think it's really exciting. It's something to take advantage
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  of. It's something to be to spend
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  the time, energy and money like I paid for a workshop really
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  recently on AI tools on using Clod Co work on using Clod on
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  LLMS. These tools are absolutely innovative and changing world
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  changing tools that enables you and every founder to go change
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  the landscape in what supports other people.
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  And that's going back to those niche solutions are buildable
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  for customers that didn't have solutions before, but are more
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  than happy to pay for that. And really, the only thing
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  standing in your way is yourself.
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  The only thing standing in your way is mindset, in being scared,
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  in the fear. And so now that I've set this
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  whole thing up, episode 2 will be about mindset.
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  We're going to go deep into the things that really hold us back
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  as founders. I will share more about what
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  holds me back as a founder and how I navigate it.
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  But you're not alone If you're scared, if your struggle to hold
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  yourself accountable, if you procrastinate, if you let those
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  challenges that come your way derail you, you're frankly in
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  really, really, really good company.
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  In the first part is really understanding what's true for
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  you, like getting that, that awareness of where you're held
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  back in your business. So episode 2 will be all about
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  mindset. Episode 3 will be a much more
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  practical episode on how to actually go about building these
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  solutions and using the tools that we have at our disposal
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  that the start up landscape has completely changed.
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  You don't need to go raise money now to build an MVP, right?
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  You can build it in a weekend. So just everything is completely
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  changed. How I think you know who's going
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  to build their solutions for themselves and who's not and how
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  that how we can think about what solutions we should be building.
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  And then episode 4 is really the long game and what compounds
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  make it sustainable over time. Again, I want to be honest and I
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  have an educated take, but it's still one man's take.
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  So if you completely disagree with me, great.
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  I'd love to hear your take. But what I'm seeing in the macro
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  environment is that these big companies just don't need all
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  these people, which is going to create a beautiful opportunity
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  for all of these individuals to truly follow their passion and
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  bring their gifts to the world. So my 1:00 ask is if this
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  stirred up some thoughts in you, If this stirred up a limiting
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  belief in you, that you, Oh my God, I have that also, or an
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  excitement in you of I get to go build this or I get to go build
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  a different thing that I'm currently building now or
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  whatever. Any way that this episode lands
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  for you, DM me on LinkedIn. I would truly love to hear from
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  you. Bradley Jacobs on LinkedIn, my
• 14:43
  Lance, you'll find me in 2 seconds and tell me where you've
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  been playing small or tell me where you've held yourself back
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  in your life from an ownership point.
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  Like you're not a victim. You've held yourself back.
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  I've held myself back. It's OK, right?
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  Acknowledging it is a massive, massive step in the right
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  direction. I can't wait to see those DMS
• 15:03
  come check us out my lands. We are truly building this
• 15:05
  incredible product that supports you getting out there on
• 15:09
  LinkedIn in a genuine, authentic, credible, credibility
• 15:14
  building way that helps attract customers and build trust
• 15:18
  because that is going to be the main differentiator long term
• 15:22
  with that signing off, have an amazing day.
• 15:24
  Shoot me a note on LinkedIn, give us a like a subscribe.
• 15:27
  All of that really supports the podcast.
• 15:29
  Send this to a friend and have an amazing day.