Napkin Math

This week Charlie and Saba dig into $1M app ideas hiding in boomer hobbies, why OpenAI killed Sora and what it says about focus, and how to hire the most talented people. Saba's joining remotely from Sicily 🇮🇹, commitment to the pod is real.Timestamps:00:00 - Intro01:02 - $1M Boomer App Ideas18:48 - OpenAI Shuts Down Sora24:39 - The Importance of Focus34:25 - How to Hire Talented People45:38 - Open Floor Meetup Recap52:11 - Moats in an AI World

They unpack a practical framework for building AI products in 2026 and rethink product roadmaps for a model-native world. They argue for simple, high-leverage interfaces and activation-first design. They spotlight Threads as an underrated marketing channel and challenge common myths about competition. They also explore how AI lets creators extend and monetize their existing work.

Saba and Charlie introduce the BROTH framework for finding validated startup ideas, dive into the Open Claw (AI agents) hype, break down Bending Spoons' private equity playbook, and celebrate the London Maxing movement, plus debate whether Charlie invented vibe coding.Timecodes:00:00 - Intro00:38 - The BROTH Framework, how to find pre-validated startup ideas25:06 - Competitive positioning strategies (more for more, less for less, etc.)32:15 - Story: founder who sold their company and is now looking for a job34:59 - Open Claw meetup, is AI agents a new product category?42:17 - Bending Spoons acquires Eventbrite, breakdown of their PE playbook47:18 - Meetup's dark patterns (and live app investigation)55:50 - Podcast milestone + like & subscribe57:13 - London Maxing movement & the UK AI fund59:14 - Did Charlie invent vibe coding?65:45 - Should they buy lawyers.ai? Live negotiation66:51 - Sign-off

A fast breakdown of a startup acquisition and what the numbers might really mean. Two actionable growth plays for 2026: making products API-first and treating social platforms as search. A deep dive on how a support platform reinvented itself around AI and shifted pricing toward outcomes.

From an $8M exit to building it all again, Tibo is one of the most unique SaaS builders we’ve met. In this episode, we unpack his regrets after selling, the exact playbook behind his $1M/month portfolio, how he stays viral on X, and what building in the AI era really looks like, all while balancing life as a dad. 00:00 Intro & the $8M exit reality02:07 $1M/month portfolio breakdown06:15 Building in public & authenticity in the AI age16:32 Running 5 companies at once 23:03 Finding product market fit & growth tactics29:39 How Tibo ships so fast (stack & vibe coding)39:13 Hacking the X algorithm45:41 The future of AI video54:22 Does your company have an AI-native product?60:30 What do you do with $1M/month?

We kick things off with B2B SaaS lessons learned from Valentine's Day (yes, really), then spiral into whether the OpenClaw acquisition just produced the world's first one-person billion dollar company and whether Peter Steinberger is the most underrated engineer alive.From there we get into why most SaaS companies are failing at AI, the rise of API-first and agent-first products, and why the stable SEO blog subscription world of SaaS is quietly dying.We also do a full napkin math breakdown on what it would actually cost to buy your own top-level domain like dot napkin and whether that's a business worth building. Oh, and Nike invented jogging. We get into that too.Timestamps00:00 Intro00:35 B2B SaaS lessons from Valentine's Day03:32 How brands invent rituals (Nike, HubSpot, Michelin)10:46 OpenClaw — was this the first $1B solo company?18:05 API-first & agent-first products24:34 Most SaaS companies are failing at AI29:12 How to stay sane in the AI gold rush32:21 Napkin Math breakdown: buying a top-level domain43:34 TLD ideas for the agent era 

This week we’re unpacking the $70M AI.com move, Anthropic taking shots at OpenAI, the rise of agent wrappers, and a quiet $1M solo app no one’s talking about.Timestamps:00:00 – The $70M AI.com Sale03:10 – The $15M Super Bowl Bet: Does the Math Work?10:10 – Charlie's Recent Domain Purchase & Do Dot Coms Matter?18:54 – Getting Scammed by Joe Exotic (B2B SaaS Lessons)24:32 – The Rise of Agent Wrappers26:23 – Are AI Agents Killing Jobs?32:14 – Codex vs Claude Code38:55 – Anthropic’s OpenAI Attack Ad  42:10 – The $1M Solo Fitness App (Happy Scale Breakdown)

The Napkin Math duo is back with another episode. We spend most of this one trying to make sense of AI agents, OpenClaw - the new kid on the block, and why this wave feels messier but more real than the last few. We talk through hype vs reality, what agents can actually do today, and how work is quietly shifting from roles and seats to tasks and systems. We also discuss AI fluency levels, how people are using Claude Code in real marketing workflows, one-person companies, and end with the Anti-AI portfolio.Timestamps00:00 Intro01:15 OpenClaw & the agent breakout moment06:52 Hype vs. reality: shiny tools, boring winners09:45 The Dropbox lesson: abstraction beats raw tech12:43 AI agents, security & where this breaks19:07 AI vs SaaS, leverage & outcome-based work24:58 Are AI agents actually killing jobs?28:23 Levels of AI fluency (and how people keep jobs)37:26 Using AI to save your job, not lose it45:18 Installing skills: marketing, SEO, CRO, execution47:12 When agents go wrong: prompt hijacking & trust52:03 The anti-AI portfolio (what AI won’t replace)57:18 Why live experiences still win

The duo is back with another episode, and this time we’ve got a guest. Jonny Burger, founder of Remotion, joins us after accidentally pulling 14M+ views overnight on X. We chat about vibe coding, prompting motion graphics with Claude, and why building with AI feels different right now. We also get into how Jonny handled the sudden attention, the noise, and acquisition offers that followed.Timestamps:(0:17) Remotion goes viral (accidentally)(2:25) Prompting motion graphics with Claude(6:54) How Jonny has been building for 5 years(10:33) Claude’s GPT-4 moment + vibe coding(15:25) Why Remotion won’t go full B2C(19:57) AI agents, local tools, and seat-based SaaS breaking(32:14) What 14M views actually did to revenue(40:07) Acquisition interest & choosing freedom(46:43) Real-world Remotion use cases (marathons, automation)(50:36) Europe vs. Silicon Valley + marketing lessons for devs

We have some news!!!Napkin Math Podcast is now live on YouTube.The episode starts with a life update (Sabba’s new baby) and somehow turns childbirth into actual B2B SaaS lessons. From there, it spirals into whether Peter Thiel is really a billionaire, why Claude feels like another GPT-4 moment, and how vibe coding is accelerating the rise of one-person companies.It then breaks down Meta’s Manus acquisition, a bootstrapped $1M planks business hiding in plain sight, X’s push into blogs, and finishes with Elon’s ever-expanding list of beefs.Timestamps:00:00 Intro00:27 Sabba’s B2B SaaS lessons from childbirth08:00 Is Peter Thiel a billionaire?09:57 Claude’s GPT 4 moment10:49 Vibe Coding Frenzy14:45 Ralph Wiggum AI agent19:01 AI vs seat-based SaaS23:22 Boom of one-person companies26:11 Meta acquiring Manus31:07 $1M Secret Planks Business39:48 Home-reno & logistics startup ideas43:27 X blogs push, Grok, and Elon’s beefs