Tropical MBA: Entrepreneurship & Founder Lifestyle #853 AI Is Useful. Now What?
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Apr 9, 2026 They break down real-world AI use cases founders are using today. Topics include sidecar versus AI-first and AI-native business models. They explore AI-driven dashboards, CRM and campaign rebuilds, and financial intelligence for cashflow and valuation. They discuss building landing pages and onboarding workflows with AI and using customer calls to improve marketing.
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GLP-1 Subscription Founder Example
- Ian and Dan reference a New York Times story of a man selling GLP-1 drug subscriptions who scaled to a billion-dollar company using affiliate programs and ads.
- They use the example to show how niche businesses can scale rapidly, sometimes controversially.
Sidecar AI Versus AI First
- Most businesses are in a sidecar AI phase where employees use LLMs alongside their existing work without systemic integration.
- Dan defines AI-first as piping real business data into AI so workflows execute and founders can ask the AI how much it's being used.
The Possibility Of AI Native Companies
- AI-native companies could be agentic end-to-end businesses where humans only touch the bank account and agents handle strategy, communications, and delivery.
- Dan and Ian warn this opens security and exploit risks when agents transact with agents at scale.