For those of you tuning in for the first time, The Next Next is a ‘build in public’ type of journey from founder Jason Jacobs (me!) to explore 1) how I can build my next company differently (prioritizing health and family, not just work, while still building an ambitious and important company) and 2) how AI can help, and more broadly, how it will change how startups are built and funded.
There is this newsletter (subscribe here), which publishes weekly and chronicles the ground I covered that week, insights I’ve gleaned, topics I’m wrestling with, and where I plan to dig in the week following. And there’s also this podcast, which publishes twice a week, and explores these topics in-depth in a series of interview-style discussions with others who are well placed for me (and you!) to learn from.
The goal of this public learning journey is to have it evolve over time from a journey into a livelihood, to prove to myself and others that it is possible to ‘have your cake and eat it too’, and to help define a new playbook for how to build companies that inspires many other founders to follow suit and gives them a roadmap for how to get started.
If you want to catch up, the historical weekly updates are here:
Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, Week 6, Week 7, Week 8, Week 9, Week 10, Week 11, Week 12, Week 13, Week 14, Week 15, Week 16, Week 17
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As I mentioned in my last update, the plan was to do a few sprints at the intersection of AI coaching and sports/fitness, and see what I find. I am a week in, and things seem to be evolving nicely.
Here is what I have been thinking about:
As you might know from my prior updates, my kids and especially my older boy are playing youth sports pretty competitively. That is not to suggest that they will go anywhere in their sport(s) (it’s gotten so hard!), but more that participation in them (including the wide range of extracurriculars they do) has taken over a big part of our lives.
For those the play youth sports more competitively, they tend to do a lot of extra stuff outside of practices and games. This stuff tends to involve parents lugging the kids all over the universe, which is time consuming and expensive. Furthermore, a decent chunk of the extra stuff they are getting lugged to could be replicated at home.
An issue I have heard from many parents in this category is that their kids are dialed in with this extra stuff when they get lugged to it, but have more trouble dialing in at home. This means that the wear/tear on the family is higher than it needs to be, the cost is higher, and many families who would be lugging their kids to this extra stuff get priced out and their kids get left behind.
Selfishly, if my kids could get dialed in at home, it would mean 1) more training 2) less wear and tear and 3) less cost. But in order to do that, someone needs to package this home-based skills training in a way that makes it fun! This makes me think there is a lane for someone to build a system that keeps kids motivated and dialed in to their sport(s) of choice between (or instead of some of) their formal training activities.
Needs to be easy to use. Needs to be intuitive. Needs to have utility and actually make them better. And needs to be fun, which could be via a mix of progress tracking, badges/levels, challenges, competitions, etc.
I posted about it here, and there were some interesting responses.
Here are some of my initial takeaways:
the less extra stuff, setup time, charging extra devices, etc it requires the better. Ideally just the kid and their (or your) phone.
from a mission standpoint, it should help the kids be more active, not less active. And it should feel like recreation, not work. Ideally, they get as juiced about using this as they do about playing video games.
the results should speak for themselves, in terms of progress the kids make in their sport(s), but also progress in them becoming more motivated to put the work in at home.
Here is what one of the Strava co-founders thinks:
Here is a pic from today that is illustrative of founder/market fit :)
Anyway, I have not anchored yet and am cautious to anchor anywhere too early. But I am excited to keep digging in here and see where it goes. Excited, but not in a rush!
Next steps:
Going to keep learning from founders building in this (broader) area, on and off the show.
Going to keep digging in on broader market trends, and what an initial entry market may be (probably hockey, since it is the one I know the best and am most passionate about!).
Going to start doing some brainstorm sessions w/ designers, full stack engineers, PMs, etc while also exploring building a protype w/ AI on my own.
If you are thinking about this area, building in this area, or know people who are, please get in touch or send them my way! I’d love to hear from you.
New content this week
2 new episodes:
Megan Lightcap from Slow Ventures, talking about their new Creator Fund, which she leads. Find it here: Spotify, Apple, YouTube.
Gregg Spiridellis of JibJab and StoryBots fame, talking about storytelling, Hollywood, gatekeepers, and AI. Find it here: Spotify, Apple, YouTube.
I think that’s all for now. Have a great week, everyone! Thanks for tuning in.
Jason