$215M AI CEO: How I’d Build a Profitable AI Startup in 30 Days (2026 Playbook)

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В этом видео Янг, сооснователь и генеральный директор Opus Clip, делится своим опытом и стратегиями для успешного запуска AI-стартапа в 2026 году. Он рассказывает о важности поиска реальной проблемы, а не просто создания "крутой демки", о необходимости глубокого понимания рынка и потребностей пользователей, а также о важности дисциплины и постоянного обучения.

  • Поиск ниши и решение реальной проблемы.
  • Использование AI как партнера для мышления и принятия решений.
  • Дисциплина и постоянное развитие как ключевые факторы успеха.

История Pivot: От неудачного продукта к соответствию продукта рынку

Янг рассказывает о начальном этапе развития Opus Clip, когда компания пробовала различные функции, но ни одна из них не "выстрелила". Только функция создания клипов в инструменте для прямых трансляций показала ранние признаки соответствия продукта рынку. Благодаря запуску OpenAI, компания быстро адаптировалась и переключилась на создание отдельного продукта, что и привело к успеху Opus Clip.

Ранняя проверка: Инженерные результаты до создания полноценного продукта

Вместо разработки полноценного продукта с самого начала, команда Opus Clip сосредоточилась на создании конечного результата – готовых видеороликов. Они использовали AI для редактирования видео и отправляли их потенциальным клиентам, получая обратную связь. После получения положительных отзывов, они создали Discord-бота без интерфейса, чтобы сэкономить время и сосредоточиться на предоставлении ценности и проверке результатов.

Стратегия и удержание: Как измерить то, что действительно важно

В первые дни работы с Discord-ботом команда Opus Clip отслеживала не только количественные данные, но и качественные отзывы пользователей. Они обращали внимание на обсуждения контента и жалобы пользователей на ограничения в использовании. Это помогло им понять, что они достигли соответствия продукта рынку. Для создателей контента частота использования инструмента раз в неделю считалась нормальной, но ежедневное использование указывало на сильную вовлеченность.

Советы основателям: Стройте реальный бизнес, а не крутую демку

Янг советует основателям стартапов строить реальный бизнес с продуктом, решающим реальную проблему, а не просто создавать "крутую демку". Если продукт решает реальную проблему, то уже должны существовать альтернативные решения, такие как ручной труд, внутренние инструменты или комбинация различных решений. Важно, чтобы клиенты понимали ценность продукта и были готовы платить за него.

Страсть против проблем: Что действительно важно при запуске стартапа

По мнению Янга, для предпринимателя важна страсть к решению проблем и созданию чего-то нового, а не обязательно страсть к конкретной области, например, к нарезке видео. Необходимо рационально оценивать, является ли проблема реальной и стоит ли ее решать. Важно глубокое понимание отрасли, рабочего процесса, профиля клиентов и вариантов использования.

Создание инструментов для авторов для таких компаний, как HubSpot

В этом разделе упоминается партнерство HubSpot и TikTok, предлагающее инструменты для создателей контента, помогающие им ориентироваться в информационном шуме, выбирать необходимые инструменты, использовать AI-подсказки и монетизировать контент. Особое внимание уделяется TikTok Ads Manager, который позволяет анализировать эффективные рекламные объявления, отслеживать тренды и использовать AI-инструменты TikTok для улучшения видео.

Agent Opus: От AI-инструмента к AI-креативному директору

Янг рассказывает о новом продукте Agent Opus, который отличается от Opus Clip более широкими возможностями и отсутствием заданного рабочего процесса. Agent Opus играет роль креативного директора, управляя командой AI-агентов, выполняющих различные функции, такие как дизайн, продюсирование, написание сценариев и т.д. Пользователи могут просто предоставить идею, историю или ресурсы и поручить агенту создать контент.

Внутри Agent Opus: Как AI-агенты изменят создание контента

Agent Opus использует мультиагентный, мультимодальный рабочий процесс, в котором AI-агент выступает в роли центрального директора, координирующего работу других агентов. На вход можно подать статью или новость, а на выходе получить сценарий, озвучку, фотореалистичные аватары, реальные и AI-сгенерированные сцены, анимацию и инфографику. Agent Opus может даже превратить пост в LinkedIn в видео.

Будущее создателей контента: Почему конкуренция становится жестче

Янг считает, что с развитием AI-инструментов барьер для создания контента снизится, и каждый сможет стать автором. Это усилит конкуренцию, но позволит создателям сосредоточиться на своей уникальности, истории, тоне и послании. AI возьмет на себя "грязную работу", а люди будут заниматься творчеством.

На чем сосредоточиться вместо технических навыков: Креативность и дифференциация

В условиях высокой конкуренции создателям контента необходимо сосредоточиться на своей уникальности, на том, что отличает их от других. Важно развивать креативность, умение рассказывать истории и создавать уникальный контент.

Станет ли личный брендинг перенасыщенным?

Янг не считает, что личный брендинг станет перенасыщенным. Он сравнивает ситуацию с автомобилями: раньше автомобиль был привилегией, а сейчас он доступен почти каждому, но все равно есть профессиональные гонщики, которые выделяются. В будущем, чтобы выделиться, нужно будет тратить время не на технические аспекты, а на обдумывание своей стратегии и уникальности.

Создатели, которые выделятся в 2026 году — и почему

Преимущество останется за хорошими рассказчиками и уникальными личностями. Если раньше нужно было тратить много времени на редактирование видео и оформление контента, то сейчас это можно сделать с помощью AI. Поэтому время нужно тратить на то, чтобы продумать, как выделиться.

Запуск AI-компании в 2026 году: Что делать в первые 30 дней

В первые 30 дней необходимо определить реальную проблему, которую нужно решить. Важно сегментировать рынок до очень узкой ниши, чтобы четко понимать рабочий процесс, болевые точки и существующие решения. Затем нужно создать прототип или proof of concept с помощью инструментов веб-кодинга и поделиться им с первыми пользователями, чтобы получить обратную связь. Также необходимо продумать, какие проприетарные данные можно собирать и как они будут расти вместе с продуктом.

Как выделиться на переполненном AI-рынке

Конкуренция на AI-рынке очень высока, поэтому важно продумать канал дистрибуции, который поможет улучшить пользовательский опыт, онбординг и таргетинг. Необходимо глубоко понимать хотя бы одну нишу, чтобы создать что-то ценное.

Два типа проблем, которых следует избегать AI-основателям

Янг советует избегать двух типов проблем: создание функции для существующего ICP (идеального профиля клиента) в рамках существующего рабочего процесса, созданного крупной компанией, и "AGI-pilled" – чрезмерное увлечение предсказаниями о будущем AI.

Быть “AGI-Pilled”: Прогнозирование будущего базовых моделей

AI-основатели должны уметь прогнозировать, какие возможности будут реализованы в финансовых моделях в ближайшие недели или месяцы. Если модель уже хорошо выполняет какую-то задачу, то в следующем релизе она, вероятно, будет выполнять ее еще лучше. Важно сосредоточиться на решении вертикальной бизнес-задачи, интегрируя рабочий процесс end-to-end, чтобы AI был частью рабочего процесса, а не всем рабочим процессом.

Ценообразование AI-продуктов: Создание ценности, затраты и юнит-экономика

При ценообразовании AI-продуктов необходимо учитывать несколько факторов: создание ценности, юнит-экономику и результаты экспериментов. Важно измерить, что пользователи делали для достижения цели до использования продукта, сколько они тратили времени и денег. Необходимо убедиться, что юнит-экономика здоровая и устойчивая. Также важно проводить опросы и интервью с клиентами, чтобы понять, сколько они готовы платить.

Customer Interviews: Why Quality Matters More Than Quantity

Количество клиентских интервью не так важно, как то, как они проводятся. Важно опросить 20-30 клиентов, представляющих разные сегменты рынка, отрасли, географические регионы и имеющих разный покупательский потенциал.

Навык AI №1: Использование AI в качестве партнера для мышления

Самый важный навык в AI – это относиться к нему как к партнеру для мышления. AI может помочь в решении проблем, понимании пользователей, управлении командами и принятии важных решений. Важно предоставлять AI как можно больше контекста и вести с ним много раундов коммуникации.

Ежедневная практика: Как задавать лучшие вопросы и получать лучшие ответы

Янг делится своей ежедневной практикой использования AI: он делится с AI своими решениями, скриншотами обсуждений и документами, чтобы получить обратную связь. Он использует Gemini и ChatGPT и считает, что они хорошо запоминают информацию. Он советует задавать AI вопросы о своих ошибках и о том, что он мог бы сделать по-другому.

Топ-3 принципа для запуска AI-бизнеса в 2026 году

Три главных принципа для запуска AI-бизнеса в 2026 году: найти действительно нишевый бизнес, выбрать что-то скучное и убедиться, что в этой нише уже есть существующие сервисы, которые можно улучшить. Важно безжалостно сегментировать свою нишу.

Финальный совет: Один принцип, который каждый основатель должен усвоить в свои 20 лет

Главный принцип, который Янг хотел бы усвоить в свои 20 лет – это быть максимально дисциплинированным. Важно эффективно использовать время, планировать дела, выходить за свои границы, быть готовым к неудачам, иметь четкую миссию и работать над ее автоматизацией каждый день. Также важно быть дисциплинированным в отношении своего здоровья.

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0:00 So let's imagine you have to start a company again. Walk me through the first 30 days. What will you do >> if I have to start a company again? I think the first thing is >> this is Young, co-founder and CEO of Opus Clip, an AI tool that turns long videos into viral short clips. In just 2 and 1/2 years, he built it into one of the fastest growing AI companies in the world. 50 million users, $215 million valuation. LLMs are advancing so fast and large companies are releasing better and better products. Do you think there are any niches or problems that are not worth solving anymore? >> If you ask me like 3 years ago, the answer will be much simpler. I think every AI founder should be somehow aged, which means that you can predict what the financial models can release in the

0:47 next few weeks or months. >> The rules have changed and most founders don't see it yet. Young breaks down where the opportunities are, what to avoid, and what it takes to win in 2026. This video is sponsored by HubSpot. Okay, Young, thank you so much for being here. You've built one of the fastest growing AI companies, 12 million users in 12 months, 215 million in valuation. Can you introduce yourself in 60 seconds? What do you do? >> Thank you for having me, Marina. Um, I'm Yan, co-founder and CEO at Opus Clip. We built the products that turn long- form dense information content like articles, blogs, footage, papers into engaging content like short form videos that can attract your audiences worldwide. We

1:33 have gathered actually more than 15 million users in the past 2 and a half years. >> What? This is crazy. Wow. >> Super crazy. >> And also like your story is fascinating cuz you started during co and you started with all the different features and only this one stuck. Can you talk to me about this mindset of like trying things and seeing them not work and not giving up? >> Yeah. Um it's kind of frustrating for sure. I think in the early days like we are like new founders or early founders. Um it's actually the passion that drove us to continuously try different things. uh but like probably after half a year or even one year of trying like let's say three to four different things if you don't still get any early signals of the product market fit you will be easily fatigued. Um so I think that's

2:19 the challenge and we're kind of lucky that we first built a live streaming tool. um nobody likes it but there's only one feature that is like um the clipping feature in the live stream tool uh that had somehow early signal of the product market fit and also thanks to that time which you know actually in the same week was launched by open AAI um so we quickly married that to this you know standalone feature and pivoted to a new product which is the open opus plate right now >> what should people pay attention to when they decide to double down on one particular feature. >> Good question. So, we were not tracking any classic OG um a RR kind of metric.

3:06 We didn't build a product for OpenClip in the in the first day. We actually engineered the result, the final outcome, the final videos and just emailed them to all of the potential customers. Oh, so you're like manually creat [laughter] we we man we we work we work with the AI to edit all these videos and write and send out to all the um potential customers and I think we got like more than 60% of positive feedback. >> I love this clip. I want to use it like I just want to tweak one thing and you know I can publish it right away. So those are the very early feedback and the then like after a few more weeks we built the product into a discord bot still no interface right so we save a lot of time building the you know UIUX

3:52 and all that all that kind of stuff and just focus on delivering the value validating the outcome so we grabbed you know hundreds of uh thousands of uh creators into our discord channel and they are playing with the bot so what we were looking at or basically their retention right their engagement of that tool And but but beyond that we also look into the discussions around the content like we saw people hey how do you get that content how do you get that piece of um the clip. So I think in the early days quantitative data are important but qualitative um [snorts] data or feedback is also super important. When we start hearing people uh complaining about the queue, complaining about the quota of their daily usage, we realize this is the part

4:40 of market fit moment. >> Nice. And was there a metric uh when you said you were tracking how often people were coming back to the bot in Discord? What's a good number? Cuz I feel like it's not something like Google, right? When you're like googling several times a day, but for a feature like yours, what's what's a good metric? Yeah, the general use case for content creator, let's say, they would normally have like one piece of long form content, uh, long form footage, and they want to use our tool to to generate like 5 to 10 short clips so that they can post to their channels, one clip a day. Um, so I would say the average uh frequency of using our tool is like on a weekly basis. But when we see people like come to use it every day or you know multiple times a

5:25 week that is a very strong usage. Yeah. >> Beyond what we can imagine. >> So based on this story that we just talked about of you ended up finding this feature. What would be your advice to all the startup founders? What would you say is the key learning from that? >> The key learning is that you should build a real business with a product not a cool demo. Right? Because many people just start with building a very cool demo. Um they showed it off to the people and you know it looks like magic because the demo really demonstrates >> you polish the way it looks right works. Yeah. >> Yeah. So the demo shows a very strong capability but um many founders failed because they didn't find a product market fit for a real business. What

6:10 that means is that they are not solving probably they're not solving a real painoint a real painful job to be done in the real world because for your product if they if it is a real painful job to be done there must be a lot of alternative solutions like you know humans do the job or they build some internal tools or they manually just you know concatenate couple of different snippets of the or solutions to make it work right they spend extra time effort or you know painful hours to get the job done. >> So are you really replacing those type of like tedious or human heavy workflows that is one part of you know whether it is a real business. The second thing would be how your customers uh

6:56 understand the values you created, right? If you can tell your product value in just like 10 words, maybe or probably you're close to a real business. If your product is just cool and all the feedback was like this is amazing, this is awesome, but nobody want to give you uh their credit card information. Nobody want to ask you what is the you know what is your pricing tier. it's also not helping you um get to the product market fit as well. >> I really like the way you approached this. So you figured out the problem that people are solving manually and then you created a product manually without any interface and then you saw early users feedback. I really like that approach. If people want to use that approach, what would you say comes first? Passion about particular problem are the or the problem itself?

7:42 >> Yeah, I would say both of them are super critical. Um but my first principle for passion is actually not necessarily the passion for solving the problem. I think passion is something more emotional. Um I think all the entrepreneurs, all the founders need to have the passion to be a problem solver. You need to have the passion to be a builder, to build something that people want, to build something that you know ideally change the world. I think that's the passion founders need, right? You don't have to have a passion for like video clipping. You don't have to have a passion for like, you know, running a restaurant. I think all you need to have for a passion is to be a problem solver, be a builder,

8:28 be a game changer. And rationally speaking, the real painful job to be done is something that is inevitable in your journey. Um you have to be very rational to figure out this is a real problems to be solved by my passion right um so the deep understanding about the industry about the workflow about the customer profiles about the use cases those are all rational um so I think an emotional passion for like a bigger picture um just just to be a builder plus um the rational conviction for solving a concrete problems that you know very well. Those are the necessities for becoming a founder. >> My guest Young built a tool that

9:14 creators love. And if you're interested in turning content into a career in 2026 or taking your creator career to the next level, take a look at this new ultimate content creator toolkit from HubSpot in partnership with Tik Tok. It's packed with resources that help you cut through the noise, what tools you actually need, AI prompts that save hours, and most importantly, how to connect your content to real revenue, not just views. My favorite section is the Tik Tok breakout, and I love how actionable it is. Tik Tok Ads Manager doesn't just help you launch ads, it shows you what's already working. I wish I had this tool 10 years ago. You can peek at top performing ads, see which products are blowing up, track trending sounds and hashtags, and even use Tik Tok's own AI tools to make your videos

10:01 stand out. And it's not just about views. It's about turning attention into signups, customers, and recurring income. Tik Tok users are actually way more likely to sign up, buy, or take action compared to other platforms. And with a HubSpot integration, you can literally see which videos are converting into leads and clients inside your CRM. This toolkit was created by HubSpot in partnership with Tik Tok and I'm partnering with them in this video to share it with you. So, you're learning directly from the people who see the data every day. Download the toolkit for free in the description below. Honestly, if you're serious about growing as a creator, this is where you start. Let's talk about your new agent opus cuz I was I heard this presentation where you compared uh where you tool your tool is doing now to human editors.

10:47 And yes, human editors are slightly better, but when it comes to someone who's just starting out multiple channels, agent opus becomes invaluable because it just takes all the content, creates, I guess, all those channels. Can you explain how it works? >> We currently have two products, right? The Opus script product is like a very refined workflow um or agentic workflow that follows um a rigid um plan and then execute it. The agent opus on the other side is more um is more agentic. Um there is no preset workflow. Um and the interaction for users is that you can just drop your um drop your idea, your story or some links or some you know assets and instruct the agent to do

11:34 whatever you want them to create. >> So the agent is more is playing the role like a director, right? It's not a video editor. It's not a video creator. It's not a video generator. It's not a designer. It is a director. And think about you know what how director works in those uh movie studio. They are like a true leader um managing and collaborating with multiple different functions like there are designers, producers, um artist um researchers and script writers, scene writers, right? there are so many sub agents in agent opus all reporting to the central director agent um so I think that's the magic part of it um because when well

12:22 everyone says I'm using AI I'm building AI but I think building a team of AI is another level of challenge but it also unlocks another level of superpower so when when we saw that um agent the agent office was the central director agent um you know designing a plan and also orchestrate among the other 8 to nine agent. It is a truly end-to-end autonomous experience where the input is just some article or pieces of news while the output consists like you know well-written script polished voiceovers um photorealistic avatars

13:08 real world assets sourced from the entire internet and also YouTube plus AI generated scenes animations infographics along the video. So, it's a true multi- aent, multimodal agent workflow. >> And so, or I can drop my LinkedIn post, right, which is a written post, and you'll be able to create >> a video out of it. >> Yeah, exactly. >> So, can you show the new AI feature? Cuz th this is something that we're doing a lot. We're trying to repurpose whatever is going viral on LinkedIn. This is so funny. I posted myself sitting in the garage on a call because my kids were going crazy upstairs and I just couldn't take the call upstairs and I'm like in this messy garage I'm freezing. Um and

13:55 it got 120,000 impressions >> and ideally I want it to become you know something else I can post. So for sure >> so I copy link right? >> Yeah you copy and paste. You can just say like create a video of this LinkedIn post and >> should I add more prompts like uh make it a viral re or >> Yeah. >> or it should or it's like pre-prompted or something. >> Yeah, it's pre-prompted but you can always always add >> um or you can you add some thought on it. Um up to you. So and for voice you want to also create your own voice but let's just like use our default all voice >> um everything >> what is the hook >> hook is that you we have different um

14:41 hook templates like the fast cuts article highlight right now it's kind of slow uh so probably takes about like 30 to 60 minutes >> oh 30 to 60 minutes >> yeah we're optimizing this the speed hopefully we can get to like 20 minutes uh in two months I'm going to show you the result. [laughter] >> Work and home lives blend together now more than ever. A constant zigzag between professional calls and family chaos. >> Okay. So with all of this, what will happen to creators in 3 years? So like in general creator economy, how do you see it evolving with all the agentic tools? >> I think the entry barrier to create something is going to dissolve so that everyone has the superpower to become a creator. Um that's a brutal fact.

15:28 um and it makes the competition much more challenging to be honest. But the good thing is that um everyone now don't have to think about you know what tool do I need to use or what techniques what expertise do I need to learn but now you can focus on figuring out what is your uniqueness how should you stand out right what is your unique narrative your of your story what is your unique messaging what is your unique tone um what sets you apart um so just focus on yourself focus on your own storytelling and in you know point of two years, no more than 3 years, AI can just deliver the job for you. They're doing actually the dirty work for you, but you're going to be the real creative one. >> But it's crazy. The competition is going to be insane.

16:14 >> It is. >> Do you think there's less and less time to build a personal brand? Because what happens if in 3 years everyone has access to tools, everyone tells a story, and then we don't have enough eyes to consume all that content. Do you ever worry about it? >> I don't worry that too much. Um because think about like 10 years ago, 5 years ago when you want to build a personal brand, um I think most of the time you're you're wasting is to um you know edit the video scene by scene, right? Is to design design your colors, design um everything like page by page. I think that's how you wasted the time. So the analogy is that is that if you have to spend five months um building your personal personal branding from zero to one but nowadays it's like you just need a couple weeks

16:59 >> my like thing because I started 10 years ago and I remember editing all the videos. >> Something that set me apart was the willingness to do that. So my content was super mediocre but because I took the chance of like you know spending six hours to edit a video I got my followers. It's impossible today. like if my content is mediocre, it's not going to be noticed. That's the thing, right? So, your story either has to be extraordinary or or that's it. Do you think we still have this opportunity to showcase our personal brands or because there's so many, we're getting saturated? >> The good storyteller um or the the real unique people can still um have the advantage. U think about um you know, carriage versus cars, right? 100 years ago very few people have cars. Uh so it

17:47 become a privilege to be you know one of the fastest people in the world. Nowadays everyone are able to to drive a car. Almost everyone are able to drive a car. Um but there are still formula 1 drivers. There are still you know WDC drivers who are you know way faster than the ordinary people. So I think this probably you know 10 years ago you showed your willingness to become to build your personal branding by uh spending extra time um writing content um polishing your website editing the videos. But I think in the future you people who want to stand out should still probably spend the same amount of time on something else. not using the tools, not you know building by yourself

18:32 but the time should be spent on thinking it through how you should stand out. So I think time spent probably the same but the actual word are completely different which is more human actually. >> Yeah. Yeah. I like that refle I like the car analogy actually. Thank you. >> So let's imagine uh you have to start a company again. Now walk me through the first 30 days. what will you do >> if I have to start a company again? The first thing is always to figure out what is what is a real painful job to be done. Um I want to so I I'm the prototype of founder who don't start everything from technology but from um users from the market. Um I have to segment my market um to a very clear

19:21 very vertical niche that I can clearly understand their existing workflow, their existing pain point um their existing alternative solutions and then so I think probably I I would have to spend you know the first couple weeks um two or three weeks understanding the real use case um the very specific ICP. Um and the second thing is to just engineer a you know prototype or pro proof of concept. I can do that very easily with all the web coding tools right now. Right. >> What's your favorite? >> Uh well I'm a heavy um cursor user. Um but I I tried many other different tools but cursor is my goto goto tool. Yeah >> cuz I came from engineering background so it's um yeah more familiar with the

20:07 IDE. The step two is actually just um couple days should be good enough u to have a proof of concept. Uh and then I go back to share that with the early users um the ICPS to get you know their feedback. Uh the feedback should not only about do you like the product but also like what kind of problems are am I solving for you and what is the value you perceive which means how much money you are willing to pay for it. Um right so that that process probably is the majority of the early 30 days but I think on the other side I'm also I also need to think it through about what kind of propri proprietary data can I possess along the way and will that data set grow as the product grow as the user

20:54 grow right um we don't have to build toward a moat um or a very clear plan of differentability but I think We need to have that idea at least well thought in the first early days. Um because you have you can't avoid it right when you really launch the product. So it's better to have something in mind have some idea in mind >> like what makes you stand out market and what makes people come back. >> Yeah. And if you ask this question, especially nowadays, especially we are entering 2026, >> we're switching between apps like crazy. Like there's new shiny app, you install it, you're like, "Oh, I love it now." But the next day something else comes out and it's so easy unless you have history within certain app. Right. >> Exactly. So the last thing I think we

21:41 should consider is the distribution channel. Um I think the competition is totally different. Yeah. Two years ago. two years ago you can easily say you are the chachibility of ABC right it's so easy to go viral right at that time nowadays like everyone knows AI everyone has used AI um so figure out a distribution channel will help you better refine your user experience your on boarding and also um your target IP as well >> so [snorts] basically you start with expertise it looks like you need to understand at least one niche to be able to build something not like oh this market looks good I'm going to try and build something for it. No, you need to be deep in that market and understand the problem. >> Exactly. Because you asked me a question. Uh the assumption is today, right? AI has been there for like more

22:27 than 3 years. The LM has been there for more than 3 years, right? It's because if you ask me like 3 years ago, the answer was will be much simpler. But nowadays, >> just build with AI. [laughter] But now when you know LLM are advancing so fast and large companies are releasing better and better products. Do you think there are any niches or problems that are not worth solving anymore just because big companies can take over in like a week? >> I think two major types of problems that a founder should avoid. Um the first one is that you are just building a feature for an existing type of ICP ideal customer profile within an existing workflow built by the incumbent. So basically what that means that is that

23:13 um the incumbents can easily build a feature that you know bundles everything right and probably you won't have your own distribution channel for example I think like if you want to build a noteaker think it through right probably find another direction because it's super easy for zoom or you know Google meet to have that feature in their existing workflow because you're targeting basically the same ICP same market same almost you know same or adjacent use cases attached to a big workflow, a big platform. I think every AI founder should be somehow AGIP, which means that you can predict or you should be confident to make some predictions about what the financial models can

23:59 release in the next few weeks or months, right? if they are already doing you know some job 80% very well 90% very well I think it's you know in their second in their next few release they can probably do that job like 99% well or even 100% right so um run that test in your internal strategic discussions if you're just becoming a rapper with some prompts then probably you don't have to write any prompts in the second release in the next release of um Gemini or CH GPT you need to focus on solving like a vertical business problem um by like integrating the workflow end to end right you need to own the workflow end to end so that

24:45 you know AI is part of the workflow but it's not all right instead like if you build a rapper with some prompt engineering AI is almost the endto-end workflow itself >> can you also walk me through um the process of coming up with pricing for an AI tool how do you decide on cuz I know you have lower tier but then you also have like a 20k check for um bigger companies. How do you come up with the price? >> Pricing is a is a real science. [laughter] So couple of factors we uh considered in the first place. For example, first what is your value creation? How to measure your value creation? Right? Um before using your product, what would your users do to achieve the goal uh to get the job to be done? uh they probably you know spend

25:31 their own time which there is a price for their own time right they probably outsource it to some vendors or um yeah they pay humans to get the job done or they may like use some like OG tools uh by some professional guys like in our use case professional editors to to get the job done. So in our industry like editing a clip, editing a like a [snorts] viral ready high quality clip, one minute clip often takes about 1 hour or at least 30 minutes and the price the market price is about 25 to $50. >> So that's the value creation we're benchmarking against. The second thing is about your unit economy. um because

26:17 you have inference cost um and that can even that can go down in the future but um it's still very pricey in the early days and also for videos another elephant in the room for the cost is the storage. The storage can be just 5% in the early days but it can become like 50% of your total cogs after 3 or 5 years. >> Yeah. So the unit economy you want to make sure it's healthy, it's um sustainable. The third one I was I would say just do as many experiments as possible. We actually send out like thousands of surveys in the first few months and we tweaked our pricing logic again and again well in the early days right you don't want to change drastically in the in the late stage but

27:04 in the early stage um we we did a lot of survey customer interview to understand how much they are willing to pay. Um because even you have a clear value creation and a well- calculated um unit economy, can users still perceive that right? Is your metric clear enough for user to understand the value creation, you know, to buy in your value creation that is still relying on your market messaging and also your um metric setup like most of the products are using a metric of usage instead of seat. I think that makes sense especially for solo printers. Uh but the experiment really tell tells us what price to go because you don't have to uh set up a price that everyone are happy with. You probably

27:50 have a assumption or hypothesis of what kind of customers you want to target too, right? All you need to do is to make sure those ICPS are okay, are happy with the price. you probably have to say no to like 70% of the early stage users but you should be to only focus on your ICAP in in the early days and then maybe you can develop other you know pressing or even product um capabilities for the rest of the users. >> Yeah, the the importance of saying no right all the time. When you said you do customer interviews, how many interviews do you need to do in order to land on some kind of a decision? >> I think the number of customer interviews are not the key. Uh but how you do it is more important. Um I think we did about 20 to 30 um for on average

28:38 for one single um critical product decisions. But we set the distribution of the those 20 to 30 um customers in a in a very um mey way where like okay four marketers you know five creators and also they're in different industries. They're they come with different um you know purchasing empower come from different geographic locations backgrounds. You want to make sure they are representative enough to help you make a decision. >> You don't need a lot but you need to have a clear concise set of um testers. >> Yeah, you want to make sure you get like a full picture of the market. >> That's really helpful for the research and validation phase. Now once you're in building mode, what about the AI skills?

29:24 What is the number one AI skill everyone should be working on right now? >> The number one AI skill is should actually go for first principle. It doesn't matter like if you're using AI for um you know design your poster um you v code your prototype. I think everyone should treat AI as your thinking partner or even thought partner. Which means that when you are having a problem of understanding your users, when you are having problem of managing your teams, when you are having problems of um figuring out your pricing or you know all the critical decisions in your lifetime uh when you are a founder, I think traditionally you will just go reach out to your coach or some more senior people uh or people with

30:11 relevant experience, right, to ask for their advice. But I think in this era of AI, you should run through it with your with you know Gemini or Chad GBT. They are actually a very very senior very important thinking partner. Um just you know instead of like asking one line of questions um throw as many context as possible um and also you know do like more than 20 rounds of back and forth um communications. you will be mindblowingly enlightened through these conversations. So nowadays that's how I practice myself. >> Do is there a certain daily practice that you have? Uh I talked to Mustafa Sleman on this podcast. Uh he's a CEO of Microsoft AI and he shared that every

30:56 single day he would talk to Copilot and just tell Copilot about what the day has been like and the decision that he's made and how those decisions made him feel. So that when in 3 months he has something like a similar problem, he still talks to the same threat and copilot and copilot will be like, "Oh, when you made that decision 3 months ago, you actually regret it. So this time let's do this." Is there something similar that you have? >> Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Because I think the current uh chatbot uh memory is so powerful that uh so what I um like monthly one of my monthly ritual is that I ask chat to PT about um you know what are my major decisions in the past month um you know give me some comment um

31:41 feedback on >> but that means you shared every single >> I shared everything. Yeah. >> How does it like every night you just sit and like these are the decisions I made or >> Yeah. Sometimes I you know talk to the AI in that way and sometimes I would just um >> um forward my decision just um like I captured like a screenshots of our group discussion. Um I dropped a link of my the document of of a PRD of a spec uh that kind of thing too. I yeah I I I kind of forced myself to >> to document. >> Yeah. To document it. >> So you said Gemini is the best for it or >> Yeah. I'm um I'm I'm heavily using both JA and ChBT. Okay. Yeah. >> But I think recently I realized they really memorized almost everything I

32:28 talked to them. So now I can start a new question like what is the biggest mistake I made in the past 6 months? Uh what is one thing you you want to suggest to me? Uh if you could three months ago. I think this becomes super powerful right now. >> I love these questions. Let everyone go go to your favorite app and ask those questions. I'm going to do this right after the interview. >> It's a good like end of the year practice [laughter] to see what's what's going on. Love it. Absolutely. >> Do you have any top three AI business ideas you would start >> if you hadn't had Opus Club? >> It's hard to name like three ideas um because I'm not an investor. I you know I I don't meet as many founders as possible. Um but I think the general first principle uh for now right the

33:17 question is to start a business like in 2026. >> Yeah >> as we discussed the market is becoming super competitive and there are like for most of the markets or industries uh there are like more than 20 50 AI tools out there already. Um so the first principle I would say is to find a really niche business. Often times many people don't really understand what is a niche. For example, is restaurant business a niche? No. Is Chinese restaurant a niche? No. Is um canonist Chinese restaurant business a niche? Still no. Um you have to drill down. Uh there are, you know, so many different types of canonist food. Um and even for one specific vertical um are you going to

34:03 target to be like the um the Chanel of Canada's restaurant or the Zara of or Uniqlo of Canada's restaurant right so the different pricing will match to different um markets different ICPS as well so pick a really really really small niche that you cannot further segment it >> to start with um >> Wow that's that's a good one yeah >> yeah you have to ruthlessly segment your niche The second thing is ideally pick something that's boring because the non- boring the cool ones are definitely 10x or even a more 100x more competitive. You probably don't want to work in those areas. That's why I mentioned earlier that the passion for building the passion for problem solving is more important because your passion for a

34:50 specific business is most likely not a viable business. Right? So you need to have a passion to build something for a boring industry but you solve a really big problem and furthermore ideally there are a lot of existing services. I think we are actually you know changing from we're redefining the term SAS and previously it was like software as a service nowadays it's becoming service as a software. So in that specific market niche, boring market niche, are there existing services um done by like agencies um by freelancers um or some internal tools or some hacky solutions, imperfect hacky solutions. Um that is your opportunity

35:36 to tackle. Um so go through some boring test, go through some niche test and go through some service test. Um, so these are the my first principles to find a new business in 2026. >> That's great. That's great. That's amazing. Okay. And for young viewers who watching, what is one principle that you wish you understood when you were 20 that would saved you years? >> Damn, [laughter] >> it's like me talking to your internal Gemini tragedy. [gasps] >> I really wish I can travel back to my 20s. But um I think the first principle is to be as disciplined as possible. Um I've been following um Cristiano Ronaldo and LeBron James for two decades.

36:23 They are at their 40s and they're still one of the best players in their fields. The reasons are they are super disciplined in their early 20s. Uh you can't change your behavior when you are over 30 or 40. it's it's just impossible. Um but if you're like in your early 20s or even younger, um make sure that you use time effectively. Make sure you can plan things accordingly. Make sure you push yourself to your boundary. Make sure you are okay with you know suffers. Um you can recover fast. Uh make sure you have clear mission and you are well aligned with your mission. and you work toward automation every day. I think you know I can list a few different behaviors but

37:10 the key principle is to be super disciplined if you want to be a successful founder uh later on and also be disciplined to your own health right like how many hours you should log to sleep um what you should eat or not um what kind of exercise you should do you should do every day like I I saw many people started to develop these um patterns these behaviors in their 30s but not in their early 20s. >> It's hard in your 30s. I love that. And also that brings you to say no to different things and it's also a great skill. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Yeah. This is something I've been hearing a lot when I'm talking to people who are building something amazing. >> Yeah. Discipline. I think Priscilla Chan just shared that she only has work and

37:57 family. Parties don't exist in her life. >> Not exist anymore. >> Yeah. And this is what you hear a lot from successful people here in the US. They work like crazy. >> I'm trying to learn. Like I think I'm disciplined, but like that level of discipline. Oh my god. >> Yeah. Exactly. Because with a super high level of discipline, you can just like master said, right? You can segment your your time into, you know, buckets of five minutes. You can easily you can easily get super focused and also switch context to focus on something else. That is the ultimate result of discipline. I saw many people like find really hard to switch context to focus for a longer time. That is because you are lacking the discipline from day one.

38:42 >> This is something I'll be teaching my kids. [gasps and laughter] >> Thank you so much. It was amazing. >> Thank you. Oh, thank you ever having

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