How New Technology Creates New Businesses

This is Dalton plus Michael. And today we're gonna talk about why AI is going to create more successful founders in the world. It's interesting. As we've gotten older Oh, sad. We kinda see a new set of tools come into the market and then an explosion in the number of founders who can now create value.

And we've seen this before. Right? Like, when was the first time you saw this? I certainly noticed when the internet was new, people that knew how to build websites were suddenly able to make lots of money from the skill. And it was like really basic stuff. High school kids were making tons of money. Yep. I remember people that could just figure out how to sell stuff on eBay Yeah.

Where you would go buy something cheap but then list it on eBay Yeah. And arbitrage. Yep. Basically, you would see people that kind of understood the new tooling that came out and would like do a hustle and make ungodly amounts of money. Yeah. And it was just because they understood the new tools. And already it wasn't even a hustle. Like it was a good business.

Yep. Like it was they.

saw that tools enabled new businesses. You know, we saw this, you know, tail end of the open source world where like we could build all of Justin TB with free software. Yep. And then we were there in the beginning of cloud compute where we didn't have to rack servers anymore. Any kid could sign up for an Amazon account, put a couple bucks down and get access to a server.

And so what's interesting is that we might, I think we feel pretty good about saying this, we might be on the cusp of the next one of these. And that means there are maybe a whole bunch of new opportunities for successful businesses to be created. Yeah. Starting now. Yeah. I mean, here's another metaphor.

When the iPhone came out, who would have thought that Flappy Bird would have been created? And I think I read that that guy made like 20,000,000 in cash Boom. In like two months and then shut it down. And so, if you watch, okay, iPhone, Steve Jobs on stage. Some guy in Southeast Asia building Flappy Bird. That's like Never would have guessed. Wild. Never would guessed.

And so, again, to be very direct, what we're arguing is that when brand new technologies come out that are powerful, the people that are on the cusp of understanding them Yeah. And that quickly build businesses or build useful things using those tools have a very unique view creating businesses and wealth.

And again, to be on the nose for AI, it seems like you can do things that would require way more head count than you would otherwise. Yes. And so, Ian, we're not even saying we know the ideas. No. We're just saying, if you're watching this and you're interested in being a founder or maybe not working at a company Yeah.

And you just pay attention to every new thing that comes out and try to find these opportunities or I don't know if arbitrage is the right word, but Don't. Just You know New opportunities. New opportunities Yeah. Using these cutting edge tools and you're on the bleeding edge, there's no You're not competing with anyone. No. It's greenfield.

I think what's cool is anytime one of these technologies shifts happens, the cost of starting a business, some set of businesses reduces by up to like 10 x. Yep. And so suddenly businesses that either wouldn't have made sense or certainly a normal person couldn't just stand up and do. Right? Like, you imagine just, oh, it's pre online selling in eBay.

All you have to do is rent a storefront and run a store. Right? Like, that's that's cheap. Right? Like, absolutely not. Or like pre Airbnb. Like, all you have to do is just like buy a house and set up your own air bed and breakfast, bed and breakfast thing, or even buy a hotel. Yeah.

That's crazy. Whereas like Airbnb, you can rent a room. And think about At your own place. If you saw Airbnb early and you just decided to be a host, you'd be like, oh, I should like do this as a business.

You can it real money. Yeah. When Shopify was a brand new thing, like all of these platforms Exactly. The people that were the first to recognize that these were,.

gave them the leverage Yes. Those entrepreneurial minded people did really well. Yes. And so I think what's so cool is that what we're saying is like if you're ambitious and you're paying attention, you might not ever need to work at a big company. You might not ever need to have a boss. Like, you can be in control of your own destiny. And these moments don't happen every week. No.

Like, we wish we did. It'd be our investor, this happened. But like, when they do, the people who move.

I mean, this is a very specific example. Yeah. But whatnot, the online live shopping thing. Yep. I still talk to the founders a lot. And they have, I think like, high school aged kids selling stuff on their Making real money. Money making just, again, I don't even wanna say the numbers. Yeah.

But, they figured out the format, they understand how to use whatnot, they built a user base there. Yeah. And they're basically They're killing it. They're making enough money for their to set themselves up for their entire life Yeah. By just seeing this new platform, figuring it out, and then making a bet on it. Yes. I mean, happened with Twitch. Happens with Twitch.

Whole new industry,.

basically. Yeah. No. I think that what's cool is that we're also talking about every scale. Right? We're talking about things that can be venture backed, maybe billion dollar companies one day. But we're also talking about things that can just set you up so that you can pay your rent and live a good life. Yep.

The opportunities are across the entire spectrum. And I think that's what's really cool about new technology. Like, when there's a real technology shift, it affects businesses across the board. It's we're not just talking about companies that YCV even fund. I think that the last point I'd want to make on this front is that.

you don't get this opportunity if you're just thinking you gotta actually do. Well, and they won't teach you this in schools. No. Schools teach you stuff for ten or twenty years ago. So the other thing that I've noticed in these trends is that when you are part of the history being made and you're this early on the cutting edge of a new tech coming out, you can't expect your university No.

Or your teachers Or your peers. People in your community or your peers to teach you about it. It's only basically weirdos on the internet. Yes. Yes. Like the only way to find these opportunities, learn about them, is to find weirdos on the internet that are also into this thing Yes. And they're figuring it out too Yes. And you can kinda compare notes.

Yes. And this is how new industries are created. Literally. By weirdos on the internet. Like literally. Literally, there's like some subreddit with a bunch of weirdos and like, some day from now, you know, ten years from now, there'll be an entire industry of people that learned about this thing in some subreddit somewhere. There. Yeah.

No. I totally agree. So hey, the big takeaway is if you've been wrestling your lawyers, if you thought,.

oh, this isn't the time to start a new business, maybe you should reconsider. This is a very interesting time. I think the final argument is there's a good case where.

a smaller percentage of the population will need to get jobs and more people will be able to use tools like this to be self employed in some way. Yes. I don't think there's any, I think all the structural changes imply that more folks will just Yes. Use their highly leveraged selves using all these tools Yeah. To run businesses Yeah. Than have to go get a job. Yeah. Right?

And I think that story isn't told. Right? I think the story is always this kind of depressing.

story of like, oh, maybe you won't need it you you won't be needed anymore as opposed to here's a set of tools you could do things that people couldn't think of doing affordably before. Like, you could be your own boss. You don't even need to be inside of a company to create value. Yeah. So anyways, hopefully, that's inspiring. Good chat. Thanks.