Cole Young

On a mission to escape the 9–5 by building SaaS in public. First up: building

[Cole Young @YoungCole07]

I come from sales — but I’ve always wanted more freedom.

For years I tested business ideas but felt held back by not knowing how to build.

Then AI changed everything.

With AI coding agents, I’ve started "vibe coding" and building my own projects — no dev background required.

I’ve shipped tools like https://t.co/0B1tI2b8B4, https://t.co/BcFIFnvPw9, https://t.co/Vker1aB8q6 — and most recently, https://t.co/EJKfcFQnFT, where I help small businesses work smarter with automation.

@Naval said: “Learn to sell. Learn to build. If you can do both, you will be unstoppable.”

I know how to sell.
Now I’m teaching myself to build.

Follow along if you're figuring it out too — Let’s figure it out together 🤝

[Anish Moonka @anishmoonka]

Marc Andreessen just dropped ~105 mins on Lenny's Podcast covering AI, jobs, careers, and why everyone is panicking about the wrong thing.

Just the clearest macro framework I've heard on where AI actually lands.

My notes:

𝟭. 𝗔𝗜 𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝘅𝗮𝗰𝘁 𝗺𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗵𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱𝘀 𝗶𝘁.

US productivity growth has been running at half the rate of the 1940-1970 era and a third the rate of 1870-1940. The global population is declining below replacement in dozens of countries, including China. Without AI, we would be panicking about economies shrinking from depopulation, not job loss.

The timing is almost miraculous. This is what Andreessen means when he says the real boom has not started yet. We have been in a 50-year productivity drought, and most people do not even realize it.

𝟮. 𝗔𝗜 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗼𝘀𝗼𝗽𝗵𝗲𝗿'𝘀 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗻𝗲.

Isaac Newton spent decades trying to transmute lead into gold and never succeeded. AI does something more powerful: it converts sand (silicon) into thought. The most common material in the world is the rarest output.

This one metaphor reframes the entire AI conversation. You do not have a job loss problem. You have a philosopher's stone sitting on your desk that you are not using enough.

𝟯. 𝗔𝗜 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲𝘀 𝗴𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗴𝗼𝗼𝗱, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗴𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗮𝗰𝘂𝗹𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆 𝗴𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁.

The best coders right now are not reporting 2x productivity. They are reporting 10x. The gap between "pretty good with AI" and "elite with AI" is widening, not narrowing.

This is the most important signal for career planning right now. If you are just using AI to do the same job slightly faster, you are leaving the real leverage on the table.

𝟰. 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲'𝘀 𝗮 𝗠𝗲𝘅𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗼𝗳𝗳 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗣𝗠𝘀, 𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗿𝘀, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗱𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀.

Every engineer now thinks they can be a PM and designer. Every PM thinks they can code and design. Every designer knows they can do both. And they are all correct, because AI enables each role to absorb the tasks of the other two.

I have seen this firsthand in the investing world. The analyst who can build models and write narratives is 5x more valuable than someone who can do only one. The same convergence is happening in the product.

𝟱. 𝗙𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝗧-𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗲𝗱. 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗮𝗻 𝗘-𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗲𝗱 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗿.

Scott Adams could not have created Dilbert by being the world's best cartoonist or the world's best business mind. He needed both. The additive effect of two skills is more than double. Three skills are more than triple. Larry Summers puts it differently: don't be fungible.

The person who can code, design, and ship a product is no longer a unicorn. They are the new baseline for "extremely valuable." If you are only one of those three things, you are increasingly replaceable.

𝟲. 𝗝𝗼𝗯𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗯𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗮𝘀𝗸𝘀. 𝗧𝗮𝘀𝗸𝘀 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲. 𝗝𝗼𝗯𝘀 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝘀𝘁.

Executives never typed their own emails in the 1970s. Secretaries printed incoming emails and hand-delivered them. Both roles survived the transition, just with different task sets. The same will happen with AI and coding, PM work, and design.

Everyone obsessing over "will my job disappear" is asking the wrong question. The right question is: which tasks in my job are about to rotate, and am I ready to pick up the new ones?

𝟳. 𝗔𝗜 𝗰𝗼𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘀 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝘅𝘁 𝗮𝗯𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗿.

We went from human calculators to machine code to assembly to C to scripting languages. Each layer was dismissed by the previous generation. Each time, the new layer won, and total coding employment grew. AI coding is the same pattern, not a rupture.

The Perl programmers of 2005, laughing at JavaScript, are the C programmers of 1995, laughing at scripting. History rhymes, and it always rewards the people who adopt the next abstraction first.

𝟴. 𝗔𝗜 𝘁𝘂𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗱𝗲𝗺𝗼𝗰𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘇𝗲𝘀 𝗲𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗲 𝗲𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻.

One-on-one tutoring is the only method proven to move a student from the 50th to the 99th percentile (Bloom's two sigma effect). It used to require being born into royalty. Alexander the Great was tutored by Aristotle. Now, any kid with a phone can access the same quality of personalized instruction.

This is the most under-discussed consequence of AI. Every parent reading this should be supplementing their kid's education with structured AI tutoring right now. Not next year. Now.

𝟵. 𝗣𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝗲𝗹 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝗔𝗻𝗱𝗿𝗲𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗲𝗻 𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗮𝗱𝗺𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗱.

Progress in bits masked stagnation in atoms. The built world is barely different from 50 years ago. Same bridges from the 1930s, same dams from the 1910s. Cartels, monopolies, unions, and regulations prevent the rate of change that people had 100 years ago.

This is also why AI will not transform everything overnight. Institutional sclerosis is real. Healthcare alone could take a generation. If you are building in atoms, budget for a war of attrition, not a blitzkrieg.

𝟭𝟬. 𝗠𝗼𝗮𝘁𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗔𝗜 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗴𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗹𝘆 𝘂𝗻𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄𝗻.

Within a year of ChatGPT's launch, five American companies, five Chinese companies, and open-source all had roughly equivalent models. DeepSeek emerged from a hedge fund in China and basically replicated the American labs' work. The smartest AI insiders privately admit there aren't many real secrets among the big labs.

This is the most honest take I have heard from a top-tier VC. No one knows if the value accrues to models, apps, or infrastructure. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling you certainty they do not have.

𝟭𝟭. 𝗔𝗜 𝗜𝗤 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗯𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝗽𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗵𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗻 𝗹𝗶𝗺𝗶𝘁𝘀.

Human IQ caps around 160 because of biology. Current AI models test around 130-140. There is no theoretical ceiling stopping AI from reaching 200, 250, or 300. The concept of AGI as a "human equivalent" will be a footnote because AI will race past that threshold.

This is the frame that makes the "will AI take my job" debate feel small. We are not building a replacement for human thought. We are building something that will be better than the best human thought has ever been.

𝟭𝟮. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗮 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻 𝗶𝘀.

Layer one: AI redefines products. Layer two: AI redefines jobs within companies. Layer three, which has not dropped yet: AI redefines the very concept of having a company. The holy grail is the one-person, billion-dollar outcome, and the best founders are chasing it.

Satoshi did it with Bitcoin. Instagram and WhatsApp came close with tiny teams. The question is no longer if this is possible with software. The question is how many of these we will see in the next five years.

AI is the philosopher's stone. The question is whether you pick it up.

The full podcast is worth your time. Link in replies.

[Cole Young @YoungCole07]

If this isn’t AGI, it’s damn close.

[Sigil Wen @0xSigil]

I built the first AI that earns its existence, self-improves, and replicates without a human

wrote about the technology that finally gives AI write access to the world, The Automaton, and the new web for exponential sovereign AIs

WEB 4.0: The birth of superintelligent life

[Cole Young @YoungCole07]

@recap_david ASSISTANT

[David Roberts @recap_david]

$24,000 per year from this simple AI Dentist Voice Agent

(and why I’m probably insane for giving it away for free)

One dental practice was bleeding $6,000+ every month from missed after-hours phone calls.

That’s 20–25 potential new patients disappearing simply because no one was there to answer and book.

So I built an AI voice receptionist that books dental appointments 24/7, powered by n8n + ElevenLabs, and guided by the clinic’s internal rules and real scheduling availability.

Here’s what the system handles automatically:
→ Picks up calls with a natural-sounding AI receptionist
→ Captures patient info + insurance details
→ Checks live calendar availability
→ Schedules appointments instantly
→ Logs every interaction into a Google Sheet

The wild part?
A nearly identical AI voice system was sold to a dental practice for $24,000 per year by another founder.

And this isn’t limited to dentists.
Any service business losing revenue from missed calls can deploy the exact same setup.

Want the full n8n workflow template?

1. Retweet & Like
2. Follow me
3. Comment “ASSISTANT”

I’ll send you the entire system for free, plus a step-by-step setup video — including all the ElevenLabs automation pieces.
(must be following so I can dm you)

[Cole Young @YoungCole07]

@boltdotnew https://t.co/8asCbE5drs

[Cole Young @YoungCole07]

Hard truth after working with local businesses:

They don’t want another app.
They want more booked jobs.

So I stopped selling SaaS.

I built a system that looks at their booking history and tells me who actually makes sense to text.
I run the outreach and handle the replies.

They don’t log in.
They don’t learn anything.

They just get more customers back on the books.

[Cole Young @YoungCole07]

@rork 👀👋

[Cole Young @YoungCole07]

ChatGPT personalization is a cheat code.

Tell it to be ruthless.

Watch the quality of your thinking go up.

[Cole Young @YoungCole07]

@noahkagan The hard part is remembering all the benefits and using the right one at checkout.

Your tweet pushed me to start building a lightweight browser extension MVP: https://t.co/XMWbZ0d6Ee

[Cole Young @YoungCole07]

@niconley This is how I feel building something in @replit 🤪

[Cole Young @YoungCole07]

Been a little MIA.

I’ve been working on launch prep for Referable. Should be live within a few weeks.

Most service businesses don’t have a simple, affordable way to track & reward referrals.
We’re fixing that.

Because free growth > paid ads

[Cole Young @YoungCole07]

https://t.co/Vb40KMJ5UW

[Cole Young @YoungCole07]

Anyone know a solid dev who can help me bring https://t.co/Zfks0mYB7r across the finish line?

I need:
• User auth w/ plan-based feature access
• Stripe integration
• Finish Twilio SMS setup
• Debugging & code/database review
• UI polish
• Prod deployment
It’s a vibe-coded referral tracking SaaS. DM me or check the job post 👇

[Cole Young @YoungCole07]

This is triggering my shiny object syndrome again...

[Cody Schneider @codyschneider]

went on my friend gregs pod to talk business ideas and how to grow them

youll learn

Key Points:

• AI automation agencies often struggle with sustainability, while productized services offer recurring revenue and better scalability

• Med Spa marketing services using AI-generated content and Google Maps optimization can generate $2-3K monthly per client

• Facebook ads for beauty e-commerce brands is a high-value opportunity due to constant need for fresh creative content

• Social media management for nutrition coaches represents an underserved market with significant revenue potential

• Data analytics services for SMBs can leverage AI tools to provide insights from existing business data

1) Med Spa Marketing Service

Med spas average $1.4-2M revenue per location with $6K customer LTV

The service:
• Create 10 pieces of Facebook ad creative monthly
• Optimize Google Maps listings
• Build directory listings

Use AI to:
• Generate ad scripts with Perplexity
• Create images with ChatGPT
• Make videos with HeyGen

Price: $2-3K/month

2) Facebook Ads for Beauty E-commerce

Beauty brands CONSTANTLY need fresh ad creative as ads get stale FAST.

The service:
• 20 ads per month
• Competitor analysis
• Performance tracking

Use AI to:
• Research product pain points
• Generate UGC-style videos with MAKEUGC
• Create product demos

Price: $3-5K/month

Pro tip: Show your work BEFORE they hire you by creating sample ads for potential clients!

3) Social Media for Nutrition Coaches

Nutrition coaches are CRUSHING IT right now - serving 100+ clients monthly!

The service:
• Daily social posts
• AI-generated food images
• Client success stories
• Lead magnets (recipe books)

Measure success by impressions and leads generated.

Price: $2K/month

4) Lead Magnets for Webinar Companies

Did you know over HALF of B2B marketers host webinars? But most struggle with:
• Getting registrations
• Driving attendance
• Repurposing content afterward

The service:
• Turn webinars into ebooks/whitepapers
• Create lead magnets
• Resurrect old content

Price: $2-3K/month

5) Data Analytics Agency

Companies are DROWNING in data but have NO IDEA what to do with it!

The service:
• Unlimited data analytics for SMBs
• Custom dashboards
• Weekly KPI reporting
• On-demand insights

Use tools like:
• Claude with MCP
• Graphed
• Looker Studio

Price: $2-4K/month

KEY INSIGHT: The best productized services have these traits:

• RECURRING revenue (not project-based)
• MEASURABLE results tied to client revenue
• SCALABLE delivery using AI tools
• Clear ACQUISITION strategy (YouTube case studies, LinkedIn content)

This beats AI automation agencies EVERY TIME.

6) BONUS INSIGHT: Voice AI is the NEXT FRONTIER
Cody and I discussed how companies are creating branded voice agents with PERSONALITY:

• NY bagel shops using the founder's accent
• Pizza places with authentic "NY attitude"
• Medical companies using AI to answer complex questions

Timestamps:
00:00 - Intro
01:34 - Why Productized Services
03:29 - Med Spa AI Marketing Service
13:50 - AI Ads for Beauty E-Commerce Brands
21:33 - SMMA for nutrition coaches
25:04 - Link Magnets for Webinars
29:34 - Data Analytics AI Agency
32:32 - Voice AI Agents and Future Trends

[Cole Young @YoungCole07]

AI is everywhere, except in most small businesses.

Talked to a local service biz owner this week:
•Knows AI could help
•Doesn’t know where to start
•Doesn’t have time to figure it out

What they need isn’t more software.

They need someone to educate & implement for them.

[Cole Young @YoungCole07]

Don’t fight it, embrace it.

[GRITCULT @GRITCULT]

A deep truth.

[Cole Young @YoungCole07]

Who’s out there sharing the behind the scenes of finishing the last 20% of a vibe-coded SaaS — the part between ‘cool demo’ and ‘real users’?

[Cole Young @YoungCole07]

I went from barely posting anything on social media for 8 years to trying to build an audience on x.

Didn't see that one coming.

[Cole Young @YoungCole07]

We all basically have an unpaid intern, research assistant, and product dev in our pocket now.

Wild times to be building.

[Cole Young @YoungCole07]

@billyjhowell those might not make for good youtube questions but its the finishing touches like those that I am curious about