Get your creative juices flowing with The Startup Ideas Podcast. Published twice a week, we bring you free startup ideas to inspire your next venture. Hosted by Greg Isenberg, CEO of Late Checkout and former advisor to Reddit and TikTok. Subscribe so you don't miss out.
For more startup ideas, we created a database of 30+ startup ideas you can take at https://gregisenberg.com/30startupideas
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I break down Firecrawl and it solves AI’s biggest blind spot, access to clean web data. I walk through the full AI agent stack every builder needs, explain why this is the "AWS moment" for web data, and share a dozen startup ideas you can build this week using Firecrawl for scraping, enrichment, and automation. Whether you want to launch a niche SaaS, a lead gen service, or a data-as-a-service business, this episode gives you the frameworks and the specifics to get started. Shoutout Firecrawl - ...
I sit down with Moritz Kremb, an OpenClaw power user and agency builder based in Berlin, to break down how to actually make OpenClaw useful. Moritz walks through a 10-step optimization guide covering everything from troubleshooting and memory management to model selection and security basics. He then demos two real systems he built with OpenClaw: a full short-form video content pipeline and a conversational CRM. This episode is for anyone who tried OpenClaw, hit a wall, and wants a clear path to...
Greg Isenberg and Remy Gaskell demystify AI agents, explaining how they differ from chat models by focusing on goal-to-result execution through an "observe, think, act" loop. The discussion dives into practical applications, showing how to create self-improving agents using markdown-based context files (agents.md, memory.md), integrate everyday tools via MCP, and develop reusable "skills" (SOPs for AI) to automate complex tasks and entire departmental workflows. By the end, listeners learn to drive any agent platform and build an AI operating system.
I break down Andrej Karpathy's new open-source project, Autoresearch: what it is, how it works, and why some of the smartest people in tech are losing their minds over it. I walk through 10 concrete business ideas you can build on top of Autoresearch loops, from niche agent-in-a-box products to always-on A/B testing agencies. I also cover Karpathy's companion launch, Agent Hub, share community reactions, and show you step by step how to get started using Claude Code and a Colab GPU. I'm hosting ...
I sit down with Oliver Henry, a full-time employee who is generating hundreds of dollars in monthly recurring revenue from mobile apps he barely touches, thanks to an AI marketing agent he built on OpenClaw called Larry. We walk through how Larry autonomously creates TikTok slideshow content, reads analytics, iterates on hooks and CTAs, and feeds performance data back into the content loop. Oliver also shares how he packaged the entire system as a free, downloadable skill on Larry Brain so anyon...
I walk through a complete 30-step playbook for building a modern SaaS company using AI agents, media, and sub-niche positioning. The core argument is that SaaS is evolving rather than dying, and the builders who win are the ones who combine a focused workflow product with a media flywheel and agent-powered execution. Drawing on my experience advising TikTok, Reddit, and building three venture-backed companies, I lay out a step-by-step framework any solo builder or small team can follow from nich...
I sit down with Cody Schneider, growth engineer and co-founder of Graph, for a live, hands-on crash course in GTM (go-to-market) engineering powered by Claude Code. Cody walks through how he runs multiple AI agents simultaneously to handle everything from bulk Facebook ad creation and LinkedIn outreach to cold email campaigns and live data analysis — tasks that used to require a team of dozens. By the end of the episode, you'll have a full understanding of how to set up your own agent workflow, ...
I take Perplexity Computer for its first real spin and test five use cases that founders can use right now to make money and move faster. I connect my Gmail live, let the AI send cold outreach on my behalf, set up daily competitive intelligence monitoring, research 50 VCs for a mock Series A, and kick off a full investment memo on Shopify, all in a single session. By the end, I walk away genuinely impressed and convinced the $200/month Max plan can pay for itself with one closed deal. Timestamps...
I sit down with my dear friend Vin (Internet Vin) for a deep, hands-on walkthrough of how he uses Obsidian and Claude Code together as a thinking partner, idea generator, and personal operating system. Vin demonstrates live how Claude Code can read, reference, and surface patterns across an entire Obsidian vault of interlinked markdown files — turning years of personal notes into actionable insights, project ideas, and even custom commands. This episode covers everything from the basic setup to ...
I sit down with Nick Vasilescu, founder of Orgo, to break down exactly how people are turning OpenClaw — the open-source computer use agent — into a real revenue stream. Nick walks me through live demos of deploying OpenClaw for business clients, shows how sub-agents and parallelization multiply output, and shares his design-thinking framework for identifying and automating high-value workflows. We even build a TikTok trend-hunting agent from scratch during the episode to prove how fast you can ...
I sit down with Frey Chu to go deep on how to use Claude Code to build AI-coded directories, specifically how to tackle the hardest part: getting valuable data. Frey walks us through three real-world directory examples (a funeral home directory, a senior living directory, and GasBuddy), we play a game guessing their traffic and monetization, and then he does a full live walkthrough of the seven-step process he used to build a luxury restroom trailer directory in four days for under $250. I also ...
I sit down with Jonathan Courtney, host of Unscheduled CEO Podcast, to talk about the gap between building AI-powered products and actually making money from them. Jonathan walks through his four-step "Promoter Blueprint" — traffic, holding pattern, selling event, and conversion — and shows exactly how he uses Claude and Claude Code to execute each phase. This one is a wake-up call for any founder spending more time optimizing automations than promoting what they sell. Timestamps 00:00 – Intro a...
I sit down with James Dickerson, a growth marketer, Claude Code power user, and the mind behind The Boring Marketer, to watch him build an entire marketing system live from the terminal. James walks me through his full workflow: deep research with the Perplexity MCP, positioning angle discovery, direct response copywriting, landing page creation, lead magnet design, ad creative generation with Remotion, and traffic strategy — all inside Claude Code using stacked skills and MCPs. By the end, we h...
I sit down with Morgan Linton, Cofounder/CTO of Bold Metrics, to break down the same-day release of Claude Opus 4.6 and GPT-5.3 Codex. We walk through exactly how to set up Opus 4.6 in Claude Code, explore the philosophical split between autonomous agent teams and interactive pair-programming, and then put both models to the test by having each one build a Polymarket competitor from scratch, live and unscripted. By the end, you'll know how to configure each model, when to reach for one over the ...
I sit down with Matt Van Horn, creator of the "Last 30 Days" skill for Claude Code, as he demonstrates how this tool turns anyone into a real-time research expert. By pulling trending data from X, Reddit, and the web, Last 30 Days supercharges Claude Code prompts with current intelligence. Matt walks through live demos, from discovering popular rap songs to generating cold emails to building a Moltbot competitor, showing how non-engineers can ship products using AI tools with almost no coding ba...
I sit down with Kevin Rose for a live screen share where he walks me through “Nylon,” a personal Techmeme-style news engine he vibe-coded to track AI and tech stories. He breaks down how he pulls from RSS, enriches articles with tools like iFramely, Firecrawl, and Gemini, then generates TLDRs and vector embeddings to cluster stories with real nuance. We dig into his “gravity engine,” an editorial scoring system that ranks stories by impact, novelty, and builder relevance. The bigger theme is sim...
I sit down with Kitze to unpack how he uses Clawdbot as a personal OS that runs across Discord, Telegram, and other chat surfaces. We walk through his one-gateway setup, persona-based bots, and the way he structures channels and threads to manage customers, home logistics, and engineering work. We also dig into the self-learning angle: giving an agent shell and network access so it can discover devices, build dashboards, and automate workflows end to end. We close with a lightning round of concr...
I sit down with Alex Finn to break down how he sets up Moltbot (formally Clawdbot) as a proactive AI employee he treats like a teammate named Henry. We walk through the core workflow: Henry sends a daily morning brief, researches while Alex sleeps, and ships work as pull requests for review. Alex explains the setup that makes this work; feeding the bot deep personal and business context, then setting clear expectations for proactive behavior. We cover model strategy (Opus as “brain,” Codex as “m...
I sit down with Furqan Rydhan, a founding team member of Applovin and cofounder Founders Inc, as he walks me through Nebula, a Slack-like workspace where every channel holds an agent that can execute real work across the tools teams already use. We watch Nebula create and edit a Google Slides deck end-to-end, including generating an image and handling failures by retrying until it lands. Furqan shows how Nebula turns one-off work into repeatable “recipes” with scheduled triggers, like adding sli...
In this episode, I sit down with Boris, the creator of Claude Code and one of the key builders behind Claude Cowork, to unpack what Cowork actually unlocks and how people use it in the real world. He walks through a hands-on demo where Cowork organizes files, extracts receipt data, builds a clean spreadsheet, and even drives the browser to create and share a Google Sheet. We go deep on how “agentic” work feels different when the model takes actions across your computer, your browser, and your to...
In this episode, I sit down with Professor Ras Mic for a beginner-friendly crash course on using Claude Code (and AI coding agents in general) without feeling overwhelmed by the terminal. We break down why your output is only as good as your inputs and how thinking in features + tests turns “vague app ideas” into real, shippable products. Was walks me through a better planning workflow using Claude Code’s Ask User Question Tool, which forces clarity on UI/UX decisions, trade-offs, and technical ...
Today I’m joined by Samuel Thompson, an internet capitalist who’s launched 100 companies in 10 years, and he walks me through a live, end-to-end build of an info product using AI. We break down how he goes from idea → AI-written book → mockups → Shopify product page → ad creatives in a ridiculously short amount of time. The big takeaway is that this isn’t just “info products,” it’s a repeatable launch system you can apply to e-comm, SaaS, mobile apps, and pretty much anything where customer acqu...
In this episode, I sat down with Chris Koerner and we go through a set of approachable startup ideas that start low-friction but can scale if you get distribution right. We start with a potential “app ecosystem” opportunity around Facebook Marketplace, plus a product-studio framework that combines short-form video, AI, and 3D printing to validate “dumb” products via demand before you invest. We then jump to more grounded, local-first ideas—bike washing/maintenance subscriptions, bar anti-spike s...
We got Ryan Carson on the pod to break down the “Ralph Wiggum” Agent and why it’s suddenly everywhere. He walks me through a simple workflow that lets an autonomous agent build a full product feature while I sleep: start with a PRD, convert it into small user stories with tight acceptance criteria, then run a looped script that ships work in clean iterations. The big idea is you’re not “vibe coding” one giant prompt—you’re giving the agent testable, bite-sized tickets and letting it execute like...
In this episode, I’m breaking down a guide from Ben Tossel on how you can actually build with AI agents without being technical. I walk through what he’s shipped as a “non-technical” builder, why he lives in the terminal/CLI, and the exact workflow he uses to go from idea → spec → build → iterate. We also talk about the meta-skill here: treating the model like your over-the-shoulder engineer/teacher, and using every bug as a learning checkpoint. The takeaway is simple: pick a tool, ship fast, fa...
I walk through Alibaba’s new AI agent tool, Accio, and show how it helps you go from “what should I build?” to actual product concepts and supplier options. I demo how it spots rising trends, pulls specific product opportunities (with context like search and sales movement), and even generates early design concepts. Then I test it on a real research task and use that to spin up a “cozy gaming” keyboard concept aimed at Gen-Z women. I close by showing how Accio can vet suppliers and even draft a ...
In this episode, I walk through a beginner-friendly, step-by-step way to set up Claude Skills so you can get more consistent, higher-value output over time. I show where to enable Skills (it’s not on by default), how to create a new skill using Claude’s “create a skill together” flow, and why Skills are different from Projects for ongoing, reusable workflows. Then I demo a real example: building a conversion-focused copywriting review skill for an agency workflow, installing it, and testing it o...
Today I break down a big news item I think is flying under the radar: OpenAI quietly launched Skills for Codex, and I explain what that means (and how it differs from sub-agents and MCPs). I then share a fast-moving trend I’m watching and why it’s a strong wedge for a simple app. After that, I recommend the to-do app I’ve used for 14 years and give away a startup idea. I close with a practical 6-step framework for going from idea → viral validation → mobile app launch in 2026. Timestamps 00:00 –...
In this episode, I go over one AI news item I can’t stop thinking about, one trend you can build a business around, two tools I’m using, one startup idea you should steal, and one framework to end on. I start with a leak suggesting Anthropic is productizing “agent mode” for Claude with structured task buckets and a progress/context UI. Then I use Hyrox as an example of how I validate trends quickly with search data (and what “low competition + cheap CPC + explosive growth” signals). I wrap by pi...
I’m joined by Sahil Bloom for a throwback episode where he walks me through his “personal annual review,” a 7-question framework to reflect on 2025 and set yourself up to crush 2026. We talk about why reflection beats raw experience, how to use your calendar to surface what you’ve actually changed your mind on, and how to identify what creates vs. drains your energy. We dig into “boat anchors” (the hidden drag holding you back), what fear kept you from doing, and how to learn from both your grea...
