New podcast series within Tacos and Tech: AI Builders Roundtable!

Neal sits down with Craig Lauer and Ross Young on a day both Anthropic and OpenAI dropped major releases to talk about what it actually looks like to build with AI right now. Ross walks through how his team at Clinically AI built an internal AI operating system using Claude Co-work - from voice-interviewing department heads to capture tribal knowledge, to running full pipeline reviews from HubSpot in natural language.

Craig shares how LaunchMate, the AI co-pilot he’s building for student founders at SDSU’s Zip Launchpad, uses persistent memory and multi-agent communication to keep founders moving. The conversation moves from tools to workflows to a surprisingly honest riff on identity - and what it means when intelligence is no longer your competitive advantage.

Key Topics Covered:

* The Anthropic 4-6 / OpenAI Codex same-day release and what it signals

* LaunchMate: AI agents with persistent memory for founders, mentors, and cohort management at SDSU Zip Launchpad

* “Tidbits” — auto-generated founder progress updates (”share without sharing”)

* Ross’s AI operating system at Clinically AI: markdown knowledge bases, Claude Co-work projects, HubSpot integration, voice-mode interviews for tribal knowledge capture

* The AI capability spectrum: chatbots → cloud agents with tool access → local agents with full computer access

* OpenClaw vs. Co-work: excitement vs. enterprise readiness and security

* Craig’s LettaBot/WhatsApp cautionary tale

* Natural language as the new programming language - and why social workers may outperform engineers at agent programming

* Processes they’ll never go back to: manual contract redlines, email triage

* Identity in the age of AI - detaching professional worth from intelligence

Links & Resources:

* Clinically AI

* SDSU Zip Launchpad

* Claude Co-work by Anthropic

* LaunchMate (in development)

Connect on LinkedIn:

* Craig Lauer

* Ross Young

* Neal Bloom

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