The Startup Ideas Podcast

In this solo episode, I break down the $5 trillion wave of small businesses set to change hands as their owners retire, and why AI agents make this wave a real opening for solo founders. I walk through how Thrive Holdings and General Catalyst buy accounting firms, property managers, and support centers, then run AI agents inside them to lift margins. Then I show how I'd run a one-person holding company: the folder structure, the agent files, the human approval rule, and my average week. I close with the strongest arguments against AI roll-ups, including the one I take most seriously.

Timestamps

00:00 – Intro

01:52 – Why the $5 Trillion Shift Is Happening Now

04:52 – Examples: Thrive Holdings& General Catalyst

08:38 – The Fund Playbook

10:07 – The Small-Deal Gap

10:51 – The One-Person Holdco

14:23 – The Folder Structure

16:47 – The Agent Pipeline

18:38 – Inside a Reviewer Agent File

19:41 – My Week Running the Holdco

21:49 – How to Land the First Business

22:24 – Arguments Against AI Roll-Ups

27:43 – Closing Thoughts

Key Points

About a million small businesses, part of a $5 trillion shift, are set to sell by 2035 as owners retire (McKinsey).

AI agents now handle the work these firms run on: data entry, document chasing, status updates, and first drafts.

The big funds chase bigger deals, which leaves the small firms open for solo founders and small teams.

A one-person holdco runs on shared agents and rules, plus a GM with real upside at each business.

A person approves all agent work before it reaches a client.

The corrections log, turned into rules every week, becomes the most valuable asset in the holdco.

The #1 tool to find startup ideas/trends - https://www.ideabrowser.com

LCA helps Fortune 500s and fast-growing startups build their future - from Warner Music to Fortnite to Dropbox. We turn 'what if' into reality with AI, apps, and next-gen products https://latecheckout.agency/

FIND ME ON SOCIAL

X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/gregisenberg

Instagram: https://instagram.com/gregisenberg/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gisenberg/

In this solo episode, I break down the huge business opportunity because Meta has opened Muse, its personal AI agent, to developers. You can now submit a connector, which lets Muse use your service when someone asks it for help, and I think this could be the app store moment for AI. I explain how a connector works, share four startup ideas you can build on one, and cover how to get customers beyond Meta's directory. I also show how I'd build a first version with a coding agent like Claude Code or Codex, and what I'd test before submitting it to Meta for review.

Timestamps

00:00 – Intro

01:35 – The App Store Parallel

04:55 – How a Muse Connector Works

07:29 – Startup Idea 1: Lead Gen for Business Suppliers

09:28 – Startup Idea 2: Home Repair Dispatch

11:07 – Startup Idea 3: Paddle Match and Court Finder

12:47 – Startup Idea 4: Family Dinner Planning

14:10 – How to pick an idea?

14:56 – How People Find Your Connector

15:32 – Growth Idea 1: Partner With Creators

16:17 – Growth Idea 2: Product-Led Sharing

17:46 – Growth Idea 3: Connected Marketplaces and Directory Placement

19:34 – Building the First Version

21:38 – Custom Connectors and Meta Approval

23:56 – Where to Start This Week

25:31 – Closing thoughts

Muse Connector Prompt: https://startup-ideas-pod.link/muse-connector-prompt

Key Points

Meta has opened Muse to developers, and a connector lets Muse use your service when someone asks it for help.

I look closely at the step in a request where someone needs a business that can deliver and money changes hands.

With a small budget, I'd start with lead generation, because I can show a customer a sample before writing much software.

I plan distribution around channels I can reach, such as creators, product-led sharing, and connected marketplaces.

A coding agent can build the first version, and I still inspect the results and test the awkward requests myself.

To start this week, I'd talk to one type of customer about the last time they dealt with the task.

The #1 tool to find startup ideas/trends - https://www.ideabrowser.com

LCA helps Fortune 500s and fast-growing startups build their future - from Warner Music to Fortnite to Dropbox. We turn 'what if' into reality with AI, apps, and next-gen products https://latecheckout.agency/

FIND ME ON SOCIAL

X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/gregisenberg

Instagram: https://instagram.com/gregisenberg/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gisenberg/

Get Your Complete Financial OS at https://startup-ideas-pod.link/brex_SIP

In this episode I speak with Nicholas Cole about the real value of everything you write on the internet. Cole has 15 years of experience as a nonfiction writer and ghostwriter, and he runs the SaaS platform Typeshare. He gives me a simple model with three tiers of content: commodity, personality, and original. He also explains the digital brain, which he calls your personal language model, and he shows how AI repeats your approved language at scale. By the end, you know how to judge the short, medium, and long-term value of a piece before you write it.

Start Writing Online In 30 Days: https://startup-ideas-pod.link/ship30

Timestamps

00:00:00 – Intro

00:03:36 – POV is the Moat

00:05:40 – Language As Open Source

00:11:24 – Value Is Relative To The Reader

00:14:26 – Approved Language

00:17:43 – The Value of AI in Writing

00:22:09 – Commodity Ideas

00:24:23 – How To Set Up The System

00:27:58 – Ownership IS Association

00:33:56 – Build your Personal Data Set

00:39:53 – Branded Content vs Founder-Led Content

00:45:17 – What is Original Content?

00:46:35 – Writing Versus Short-Form Video

00:48:58 – Three Types of Hooks

00:49:50 – Timely Content vs Timeless Content

00:53:27 – Voice is 3 dialed settings

00:56:32 – Finding your Voice

01:00:49 – The Company Brain As The Moat

01:07:30 – Closing Thoughts

Key Points

A point of view creates the moat, because copycats must wait for your next idea.

Content sits in three tiers: commodity, personality, and original. Each tier adds different leverage.

Ownership equals association. Volume builds it, and personality details make it strong.

Your life story is the unmade data set, so AI learns it only from your own writing.

Every piece sits on a spectrum from timely to timeless, so match your expectations to the type.

Humans do the thinking and the writing. Robots do the repeating and the remixing.

The #1 tool to find startup ideas/trends - https://www.ideabrowser.com

LCA helps Fortune 500s and fast-growing startups build their future - from Warner Music to Fortnite to Dropbox. We turn 'what if' into reality with AI, apps, and next-gen products https://latecheckout.agency/

FIND ME ON SOCIAL

X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/gregisenberg

Instagram: https://instagram.com/gregisenberg/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gisenberg/

FIND COLE ON SOCIAL

X: https://x.com/Nicolascole77

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@nicolascole77

Ship 30 for 30: https://startup-ideas-pod.link/ship30

In this episode, I talk with Ryan Vogel about Jev, a new type of AI built for classification. Ryan shows how Jev takes an input plus an output schema and returns a probability for each choice in about 200 milliseconds. He demos Jev sorting 1,700 emails for 18 cents total, then covers lead scoring, support routing, video clipping, and browser control. I push him on the startup angle: find a business with an expensive queue of incoming information and put Jev at the front of it. You leave with a clear mental model, real use cases, and a simple way to try it today.

Links Mentioned:

Jev/Typeface AI: https://typesafe.ai

AI Gateway: https://vercel.com/ai-gateway

Timestamps

00:00 – Intro

02:27 – What Jev Is and Why It Matters

04:32 – Email Triage Demo

07:19 – Jev as an AI Decision Maker

15:46 – How to Use Jev in a Business

20:48 – Startup Idea: Local Services Matching and Instant Quotes

22:51 – Use Case 1: Bitcoin Signal Test and Limits

24:03 – Use Case 2: Auto-Clipping Long Videos

25:27 – Use Case 3: Browser Control: Flight Pick in 7.1 Seconds

26:18 – How to Get Access

27:25 – Closing Thoughts

Key Points

Jev is a classifier: an input and an output schema go in, and a probability for each choice comes out.

Ryan's demo scores 1,700 emails for 18 cents total.

Each Jev query takes about 200 milliseconds, whatever the input and output structure.

Use Jev at any point where a business makes fast, repeatable decisions on incoming data.

Keep Jev in an advisory role, and save frontier models for high-intelligence tasks like trading.

Instant access runs through the Vercel Gateway, and a waitlist covers direct access.

The #1 tool to find startup ideas/trends - https://www.ideabrowser.com

LCA helps Fortune 500s and fast-growing startups build their future - from Warner Music to Fortnite to Dropbox. We turn 'what if' into reality with AI, apps, and next-gen products https://latecheckout.agency/

FIND ME ON SOCIAL

X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/gregisenberg

Instagram: https://instagram.com/gregisenberg/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gisenberg/

FIND RYAN ON SOCIAL

X: https://x.com/ryanvogel

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@vogeldev/videos

I sit down with Remy to go through Instinct, the new invite-only personal agent that runs inside iMessage. Remy shares his raw chat history on screen: a haircut booking in Copenhagen, a restaurant reservation, a Bali visa on arrival, and an Emirates Skywards sign-up. We cover the parts that impress us, the points where the agent hits a wall, and the privacy questions that stay open. By the end of this episode you understand what Instinct does today, and you get fresh ideas for personal agents in general.

Timestamps

00:00 – Intro

02:08 – Instinct Pros

11:18 – Instinct Cons

13:16 – Simple Onboarding

15:19 – Tools and Connectors

17:43 – Example 1: Booking a Haircut in Copenhagen

20:24 – Example 2: Restaurant Booking and Calendar Entry

23:03 – Example 3: Bali Visa on Arrival and Emirates Skywards

26:00 – Closing Thoughts

Key Points

Instinct hides the agent complexity behind a phone number and iMessage, so a first-time user starts in seconds.

Remy gets it to book a haircut, hold a restaurant table, file a Bali visa on arrival, and open an Emirates Skywards account.

A spend-limited virtual card keeps the blast radius small when the agent pays for things.

The agent stalls when a task needs a phone app or an Indonesian checkout page.

Users report that Instinct keeps copies of email after they disconnect Google, so treat privacy as an open risk.

The trusted person network lets one Instinct talk to another, which builds network effects into the agentic era.

The #1 tool to find startup ideas/trends - https://www.ideabrowser.com

LCA helps Fortune 500s and fast-growing startups build their future - from Warner Music to Fortnite to Dropbox. We turn 'what if' into reality with AI, apps, and next-gen products https://latecheckout.agency/

FIND ME ON SOCIAL

X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/gregisenberg

Instagram: https://instagram.com/gregisenberg/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gisenberg/

FIND REMY ON SOCIAL

X: https://x.com/remy_gaskell

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@aiwithremy

AI with Remy: https://www.aiwithremy.com/