Colin Kinner

Founder and CEO, Startup Onramp | Building conversational agents to help startup founders make better decisions

[Colin Kinner @ColinKinner]

@steepdecline Agreed, and I think there's a big difference between an agent designed to do coaching, and most of the chatbot startup agents I've seen. Some of the advice coming out of low-context chatbots would make your eyes water.

[Colin Kinner @ColinKinner]

I published an article about the future of startup ecosystems, and the role of AI in helping guide founders alongside human mentors

TLDR: Human mentors are still valuable, but we should augment them with AI that can coach and guide startup founders

https://t.co/IYkkbKkd0I

[Colin Kinner @ColinKinner]

You'd have some views on this @steepdecline

[Colin Kinner @ColinKinner]

https://t.co/dITEm8MeFs

[Colin Kinner @ColinKinner]

@i_am_holt Hi Alex, we’ve built a startup founder coach using ElevenLabs agents. I’ve been a startup coach for 20 years, and I can honestly say it’s already exceeding human capability in some areas.

https://t.co/0uAj3kezUz

[Colin Kinner @ColinKinner]

@mati Hi Mati, we’ve built a startup founder coach using ElevenLabs agents. It’s capable of radically changing how founders start companies, since any founder anywhere can now get expert coaching. Thanks for supporting us via the ElevenLabs startup grant!

https://t.co/0uAj3kezUz

[Colin Kinner @ColinKinner]

@boardyai @hf0 30

[Colin Kinner @ColinKinner]

@FishAudio DRAMA

[Colin Kinner @ColinKinner]

I've been having a lot of conversations with Boardy about AI coaching for startup founders. Now I get to keep that thread going on iMessage.

[Colin Kinner @ColinKinner]

As @DavidOndrej1 recently pointed out, AI still struggles with emulating human judgement. But with a lot of work on prompting, it can be done.

[Colin Kinner @ColinKinner]

Most founders are using AI to help them make decisions. But LLMs have limited context, and struggle to push back because of their tendency towards sycophancy. So founders typically get generic, overly positive advice that can lead them to make poor decisions.

[Colin Kinner @ColinKinner]

The way we support startups is changing. Soon, every founder will have access to a capable AI agent that can help them make better decisions and faster progress.

https://t.co/dITEm8MeFs

[Colin Kinner @ColinKinner]

Coaching startup founders requires two things:
1. Facts. If you're going to give advice, you need context on the founder, their product and market
2. Candour. If there's an obstacle, you need to be able to tell the founder without sugar-coating. . .
🧵

[Colin Kinner @ColinKinner]

@DavidOndrej1 Good points David. Regarding judgement, I'm using Opus & Fable to coach startup founders via a voice agent. It's taken a lot of prompt work, but results are promising. It now gives founders strategic advice that approximates what they would get from an experienced startup coach.

[Colin Kinner @ColinKinner]

https://t.co/dITEm8MeFs

[Colin Kinner @ColinKinner]

Most founders are using Claude or ChatGPT as their primary source of startup advice 😬

[Colin Kinner @ColinKinner]

The AI Founder Coach is available to founders, and to startup programs and ecosystem organisations.

In the future, every startup founder, whether in a program or not, will have access to highly capable AI agents that help them make better decisions and faster progress.