The Next Next / Update #4

I hope you all had a Happy New Year. Another year behind us! I spent it with my wife and kids in Vermont and it was lovely - some sledding, some Scrabble, some running and some reading. Just a quick trip, but the family time was really special.

While it was another short week, things are continuing to move along with TNN. Last week, I was talking about how the best way to stay on top of what is happening with these emerging AI tools may be to build an agent using these tools to help me stay on top of what is happening with them.

As I started down this path over the last few days, here are some initial observations:

• It is clear some technologists are finding that AI is extending their bandwidth and making them more efficient. Some examples here and here, but there are many.

• It is also clear that some non-technical people are finding that, using tools like ChatGPT to teach them and hold their hand, they are able to cross the chasm and build (and publish!) apps for the first time ever. There are many, but Josh Mohrer is the best example of this I have found so far (fmr GM of Uber NYC that bootstrapped an AI transcription app to $4m ARR as a solo founder, with no prior technical training, writing all the code himself).

• In my initial (albeit very early) exploration, my impression is AI is more powerful today for the people like senior engineers and product people, who are familiar with coding and development environments already and can give proper guidance to the AI tools and integrate the output into a cohesive package.

• It’s not that it is not impactful for the non-coders (and examples like Josh Mohrer show that it can be, for sure!), but those non-coders still need to either be pretty determined to learn how to code or lean on seasoned coders a lot while they use these tools. In the Josh Mohrer example above, while he did not come in with technical training, he said in the interview I linked to above that coding seemed more interesting to him than business when he was on the business side, and it is also clear he has picked up a lot of it along the way with his current endeavor.

• I know ultimately the barrier to entry will keep getting lower, but at least with coding, AI seems a lot more powerful in its current form as an extension of people already technically inclined than a replacement, and even for those coming in fresh, they will need to pick up a lot of coding concepts on the way in order to build great software.

Meanwhile, I have done some personal evaluation as well, and here are some nuggets from that process:

• I get a lot of energy from talking to people, building rapport and relationships, and getting people to open up about their journeys and crafts in a way that is incredibly insightful to me and at least some others. I think it is one of my superpowers, especially given how much I enjoy it.

• Whether it is a podcast or another form of one to one dialogue, I want to find a way to incorporate the above in my exploration of how AI is changing how startups get built and funded.

• But there are a zillion AI podcasts already. The idea of launching another one is not that interesting on its own. What IS interesting to me is the idea of launching a podcast (or other form of content) to enable another public social learning journey, but do so in a way where the insights can be mined, packaged, and shared in a living/breathing format as the journey goes on.

• So, basically, it would be combining the content side of my last journey with the AI companion idea I was talking about last week, only making the (or one initial) purpose of the AI companion to mine the data from my public learning journey and increase the insights (and deliver them more efficiently) for me and whoever else follows along.

I am not saying I am giving up on building with these tools myself (I started a Python course online this week and ordered a Python book, lol), but I don’t want to over-rotate to learning tech at the expense of the people side of the journey, and I don’t want to focus only on people/content without doing so from the outset with AI-powered data/insights in mind. One way or another, getting my hands dirty feels important.

I am sure I totally lost you with this, but it makes sense to me, lol. I also caution that in this early exploration there is going to be some thrash, and I’ll know I am making headway when the bands of thrash keep getting narrower and narrower. It is early, and I am definitely not there yet.

Anyway, I am strongly convicted in this path (even in its fuzzy form), having a lot of fun, and it feels to me like tangible progress is happening week to week, even if I can’t always clearly articulate it.

Asks this week:

• Feedback on any or all of the above! Agree? Disagree? Have a different take? Please share!

• Connections to other non-technical founders like Josh Mohrer who are building successfully and impactfully using AI tools.

• Connections to other founders like Dan Shipper who started with content but are

  leveraging AI to mine unique insights from the content that provide an unfair advantage in building the internal machine (and future products!) while providing an additional layer of content as well (that’s the Every model!).

• Advice on what type of content would be most helpful/interesting to you, and what types of tools/resources are best to enable it.

• Advice on any data considerations in terms of how to structure the content in a way that is most easily mined.

I think that’s all for now, have a great week! And if you are getting value from following along here, I’d appreciate if you share with others you think may get value from it too! And make sure to subscribe (free to do so) if you haven’t already, so you don’t miss any updates.

Until next week!