Rogue Startups

• RS340: Is AI Killing SaaS w/ Tim Schumacher

  In this episode of Rogue Startups, Craig sits down with founder and entrepreneur Tim Schumacher to discuss his insights on AI, the future of SaaS, and what makes a company successful. In 2001, Tim co-founded Sedo.com, the world's largest domain marketplace. Since selling the company, he’s been active as an Entrepreneur and/or Investor in various start-ups, such as Eyeo (makers of Adblock Plus), Ecosia, Hitfox, Aklamio, Miomente, PiwikPro, BasicThinking, Home, Zolar, Joblift, SaaS.group, and others.  Highlights from Craig and Tim’s conversation: The future of SaaS keeps founders up at night Using artificial intelligence to analyze feedback and company metrics for smarter decision-making How to make your data, and your customers' data, available across multiple platforms and environments What impact will AI and automation have on the economy and the future of work? Why are some in the SaaS industry still hesitant to adopt AI, and what are their fears? Key factors that drive business growth and longevity. Product-Market Fit vs Founder-Market Fit: Understanding the difference and why both matter. Starting a business at the intersection between climate tech and AI Remote work vs in-office culture: How the workplace dynamic is evolving in the age of digital transformation. Resources and Links Mention in This Episode: Tim on Twitter/X Tim on LinkedIn Email: [email protected] Sedo Zenloop  Day.ai  Fyxer If you feel like Rogue Startups has benefited you and it might benefit someone else, please share it with them. If you have a chance, give Rogue Startups a review on iTunes. Do you have any comments, questions, or topic ideas for future episodes? Feel free to reach out to me: Twitter: @TheCraigHewitt LinkedIn:

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• RS339: AI Skeptic, or Believer

  In today’s episode, Craig chats with Anthony Eden from DNSimple about how they use AI in their businesses and their personal lives. As early skeptics of AI, they do a deep dive into what made them change their minds, what AI does for them, and how it might actually be holding people back. Like the internet, AI is a powerful tool people can use to make their lives better.  They also chat about what it’s like to raise kids as entrepreneurs. Has their influence improved or hindered their children’s lives? Not to mention, how do they balance their work life and personal life and is AI helping them with that balance? Anthony Eden is the creator and founder of DNSimple. He has been developing web applications since the early days of the web (1995) using Ruby, Erlang, Golang, and other languages. He used to publish a podcast called the Strong Businesses Podcast with Steven Bristol. He also published a mostly weekly podcast of progressive dance music over at theministerprime.com. He also produces tracks which can be found on SoundCloud. Highlights from Craig and Anthony’s conversation: What changed Anthony and Craig’s minds about AI How to, as an entrepreneur, leverage AI without just “chasing the trend” The personal and emotional impacts of running a business in this AI world What AI will do for the future of business and SaaS Training AI and what the “mistakes” teach you and your team “I have to have a little bit of fear in everything I do [as a founder].” Keeping customer data safe and secure What data is AI using to aid you with your business? “This kind of stuff is fantastic but, boy, does it make you lazy.” As an entrepreneur, how do you talk to your kids about careers after college? How is generative AI going to make our lives better? Takeaways and Vision: How do you take a non-native AI solution and adapt it to a solution for your customers, your team, and your business? As a founder and entrepreneur, how you use AI in your business is important. Not only do you have to pay attention to what information you are getting from AI, but how it is affecting your productivity overall.  Resources and Links from This Episode: DNSimple Anthony Eden, LinkedIn Anthony Eden,

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• RS338: Balancing Your Use of AI with Aaron Francis

  Ever wonder what's happening behind the scenes when your dev team says they're "leveraging AI"? As a non-technical founder, you don't need to understand every line of code, but knowing how AI is actually being used in your business is becoming essential. Today I'm sitting down with Aaron Francis, who pulls back the curtain on AI in development work. We'll explore the surprising differences between how veterans and newcomers in the field are using these tools, the common pitfalls teams fall into, and the unexpected ways AI is transforming how products get built. Whether you're trying to speak your developer's language or just want to ensure your company is using AI effectively, this conversation will give you the insights you need.   Highlights from this Episode: Are junior developers utilizing AI too much? Creating a balance between overusing AI and being a Luddite How Aaron uses Claude for “discrete” tasks Developers aren’t going away anytime soon Balancing the use of AI without depending too much on it Harnessing the power of AI for your business AI tools are both calming and scary for founders Aaron’s different uses for 01 Pro What AI can do versus what AI should do and undeniably human tasks Where to go to educate yourself about AI The importance of testing and checking AI work   Resources and Links from this Episode: Try Hard Studios: https://tryhardstudios.com/ Aaron Francis: https://x.com/aarondfrancis Reforge: https://www.reforge.com/profiles/brian-balfour SWYX: https://x.com/swyx https://www.youtube.com/@JeffSu https://www.youtube.com/@SkillLeapAI https://www.youtube.com/@MATGpod Email me: [email protected] Find me on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/TheCraigHewitt

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• RS337: Building AI Native SaaS w/ Jordan Gal

  Today, Craig chats with Jordan Gal from Rosie about starting a business centered solely on AI. While many of us use AI to help with our work tasks and streamline certain jobs, Jordan’s whole business is AI. They discuss how you and your customers can use AI, what it’s like to start a company right now, and what AI is doing to SaaS. Rosie creates a new option for small businesses. Previously, the only way to handle phone calls during work hours was through voicemail or an answering service. Rosie offers a new option in that market: an AI can answer the phone for you and handle the tasks needed for these calls, whether it’s taking messages, sending messages out, or talking to clients. Highlights from Craig and Jordan’s conversation: Non-technical CEOs sympathize more with customers Jordan views his engineering company as customers see their product Because of this, he knows how Rosie helps businesses run better Using AI to help the customer understand their data vs building a product that was not possible before AI Create milestones for the team when creating a brand-new product Jordan tells his team to work as if they are onboarding 100 customers a day Dealing with customers that have different knowledge bases of your type of product Remove marketing fluff to speak plainly to possible customers If you provide the customer with something they truly need and get value from, they will find ways to deal with those roadblocks Conversion versus usage numbers: how to avoid churn Freemium and usage-based trials What AI has done to SEO: people are led to video and YouTube Software in the AI era Now is a good time to bootstrap; it is not a good time to raise money Everything you do has to have leverage Takeaways and Vision: Everything in technology is time-sensitive because tech improves and evolves so fast. Rosie shows us that AI can do much more than just answer questions, run some numbers, and analyze data. Whether you’re using AI to help your business run better, or if you’re creating the next AI tool, now is the time to embrace this technology. Resources and Links from This Episode: Rosie   Jordan on Twitter/X

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• RS336: Claude Project Deep Dive with Alison French

  On today’s episode of Rogue Startups, Craig continues his AI series with founder, marketer, and Claude-user Alison French. They discuss the hesitation creators feel when working alongside AI and what Alison did to overcome that hurdle. Since then, she’s taught herself how to use Claude.ai in her creative and professional work. AI is a tool that everyone has to learn how to use.  Watch on YouTube If you feel our podcast has benefited you and might benefit someone else, please share it with them. Also, if you have a chance, please give Rogue Startups a review on iTunes. We’ll see you next week! Highlights from Craig and Alison’s conversation: How creatives can use AI to improve their professional and personal lives How to fine-tune Claude’s tone of voice: Add files to the specific project only You have to feed the machine with information that matters Over time, working within the same project, Claude will tune itself to your prompts How to have Claude see references and change the tone or voice Separate and break down transcripts by prompt to hone in on specifics Claude is like a junior copywriter: work with it and nurture it, and it will help your work go faster so you can focus on the important things. Craig’s creative process when creating content: Get examples/models, templates, and ideas to input into your AI program of choice. Break your content up into different functions. Go in once a week to pull out topics. Put the time and energy into refining one meaty piece of content that you can use over and over again. You have to focus on what makes you credible to your audience How does your team embrace and respond to AI because at the surface it’s a risk for all of us? How do we educate our youth now, for a future with AI? Takeaways and Vision Balancing the importance of human connection with the ability to express your individuality and be yourself is even more possible in this AI era. Adopting and embracing technology and AI in your personal and professional lives can help save you time and free up some creative energy for being social, innovative, and expressing yourself. AI will give you the time to do the work to open yourself up to having personal experiences. Resources and Links from This Episode   Alison French on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/frenchalison/  LTO:

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