Learn more about the Google for Startups Cloud Program here.

In this episode of Superhuman AI: Decoding the Future, Zain and Hassan share 10 impactful career lessons from their personal journeys, offering actionable advice for listeners looking to shape their professional paths. From embracing risks early on to cultivating patience and persistence, this episode is packed with insights and practical strategies. 

Hassan discusses the importance of taking calculated risks early in your career, explaining how bold moves can set the stage for greater long-term rewards. Zain shares how confidence is built through action and overcoming challenges, reflecting on his own journey of tackling daunting tasks despite initial self-doubt. Together, they stress the value of seeking out failures as learning opportunities, reminding listeners that resilience and reflection are key to finding success.

They also explore the significance of networking, with Hassan sharing how reconnecting with Zain led to exciting business ventures, and they encourage listeners to build relationships and increase their "luck surface area," opening doors to unexpected opportunities.

What we talk about:
(1:24) – Risk scales better than effort.
(3:40) – Confidence is not a precondition for doing hard things – it’s the reward.
(6:55) – Don’t focus on work/life balance early in your career.
(9:49) – You need soft skills if you want to be successful.
(12:00) – Be thoughtful about your decisions when you have limited information.
(13:12) – Fail more.

(18:30) – Expand your network to increase your luck.

(21:30) – Create content to find opportunities.

(23:12) – Success requires patience and proactivity.

(27:04) – Work on the things you love.

Learn more about the Google for Startups Cloud Program here.

In this episode of Superhuman AI: Decoding the Future, Zain and Hassan delve into the critical role of content curation in shaping personal and professional growth, focusing on the distinction between "active content" and "passive content." Zain and Hassan discuss the concept of active content (educational podcasts, courses, and entrepreneurial insights) that equips listeners with practical skills and measurable improvements in areas like health, career, and well-being. They contrast this with passive content, which is often created for entertainment, capturing attention without delivering meaningful value, and highlight the importance of being intentional with content consumption.

Our hosts discuss the importance of aligning content consumption with personal goals and focusing on learning "technical truths" over "social truths." And Zain and Hassan also stress the importance of seeking credible content from experienced sources with aligned incentives, ensuring any insights gained are actionable and relevant.

They explore the benefits of becoming a content creator and contributing to the knowledge pool. Drawing from personal experiences, they share how producing valuable content enhances learning, builds credibility, and creates opportunities to influence others positively. Plus, they offer a thoughtful guide to curating content for a more intentional and fulfilling personal and professional life.

What we talk about:

(0:36) – Why you should be intentional with your content consumption.

(2:17) – The difference between active and passive content.

(8:30) – How active content changed Zain’s life.

(11:40) Hassan’s top content for building and scaling businesses.

(13:44) – What are technical truths and social truths?

(14:50) – Why you need to be aware of media companies’ credibility and incentive structures.

(16:08) – How to curate your list of credible content.

(19:36) – The power of content.

(23:04) – Zain’s top content picks.

Learn more about the Google for Startups Cloud Program here.

In this episode of Superhuman AI: Decoding the Future, Zain and Hassan explore practical strategies for increasing your income through the use of leverage. They introduce five key types of leverage—knowledge, labor, capital, technology, and media/distribution—offering a roadmap for turning skills into higher earnings. 

They share their personal experiences to illustrate these principles: Hassan recounts his journey from working at a startup to joining a founding team, and Zain discusses how he leveraged knowledge and labor to launch his own successful social media consultancy and create the Superhuman AI newsletter. Through consistency and hard work, they demonstrate how small, incremental efforts compound into meaningful career and income growth over time.

Zain and Hassan also underscore the value of building a public presence and network to unlock higher opportunities and income potential. They caution that this approach is not a get-rich-quick scheme but a systematic and sustainable strategy for achieving long-term financial success.

Packed with actionable insights to enthuse the budding entrepreneurs of 2025, this episode offers a practical guide to using leverage and continuous learning to create meaningful career and income growth.

What we talk about:

(0:48) - The challenge – how to achieve $8,000 per month of income.

(1:59) – What is leverage and why do you need it?

(3:45) – The importance of compounding.

(5:21) – Building leverage from zero.

(7:21) – Permission and permissionless leverage.

(8:33) – How Hassan built his leverage.

(10:46) – The most accessible form of leverage is knowledge.

(11:52) – Zain’s system for supercharging your knowledge.

(13:45) – Building Leverage within a job.

(15:13) – How to choose the right jobs after graduating.

(16:25) – Do you want to build or sell?

(20:11) – Forget your job title and focus on your experience.

(23:54) – Why should you share your knowledge and build an audience?

(29:29) – Utilising your leverage to 3x your income.

(33:08) – How Zain used this process to generate $100k+ per month.

(38:12) – Consistency is key.

Learn more about the Google for Startups Cloud Program here.

In this episode of Superhuman AI: Decoding the Future, Zain is joined by Tibo Louis-Lucas, creator of Tweet Hunter and the AI-powered LinkedIn post generator, Taplio, to explore the essentials of starting a business with simplicity and efficiency.

Tibo discusses the power of a lean, focused team in the early stages of a business, with a focus on the “distributor” (who brings the products to market efficiently) and the “builder” (who creates and maintains the product itself). The pair explain how this minimalist approach allows for clear responsibilities and operational clarity, and how it enables individuals to concentrate on their tasks without being overwhelmed.

Tibo also shares his insights on the broader principle of lean teams, and how small teams can remain agile and focused on delivering results. Plus, Zain and Tibo share some valuable lessons for aspiring entrepreneurs, emphasizing the power of simplicity, the importance of strategic resource allocation, and the role of clarity in building strong foundations for any business.

What we talk about:

1:27 – How Tibo sold Taplio

3:23 – Tibo’s early days in building startups

5:13 – How did Tibo gain traction with Tweet Hunter?

8:18 – Separating good ideas from profitable solutions

13:31 – The journey from Tweet Hunter to Taplio

17:59 – Why builders should partner with content creators

20:54 – The acquisition of Taplio

27:57 – Getting banned from LinkedIn

30:14 – Taplio after the acquisition

33:41 – Why no one should be ignoring SEO

34:25 – Why did Tibo leave Taplio?

35:15 – Tibo’s latest project

In this episode of Superhuman AI: Decoding the Future, Zain and Hassan share practical strategies for finding business opportunities in AI. They argue that building on foundational technologies like Chat GPT or Claude can be highly lucrative, citing successful examples like Perplexity, backed by Jeff Bezos.

They explore four key approaches. The Operational Expenditures Attack reduces operational costs through AI automation, as seen with platforms like Harvey AI, while Feature Arbitrage leverages new AI features to quickly build niche products, exemplified by Plug AI and Jenny AI. The Personal Problem Goldmine emphasizes solving your own challenges for impactful ideas, and the Money Trail Method focuses on industries with heavy funding, like Semantic Health, addressing hospital revenue inefficiencies.

Finally, they discuss the X for Y Formula, which adapts successful models like ChatGPT to new domains, and we learn why curiosity and observation are essential traits for spotting opportunities in the AI space.

What we talk about:

1:12 – How to find product ideas

3:03 – All about Operational Expenditures

10:37 – Using Feature Arbitrage for new product ideas

13:35 – Why being a GPT wrapper isn’t a bad thing

16:04 – The Personal Problem Goldmine

25:19 – Finding ideas with the Money Trail Method

30:33 – The ‘X for Y’ formula

Learn more about AssemblyAI here.

In this episode of Superhuman AI: Decoding the Future, Zain and Hassan sit down with Elias Torres, co-founder and CEO of Agency, to learn about his remarkable career and vision for AI’s transformative role in customer success.

Elias discusses the motivations behind his entrepreneurial endeavors (founding Performable and co-founding Drift) and the challenges he faced while building innovative companies. He explains why recruiting top talent, fostering strong company culture, and maintaining a customer-centric approach are so important when it comes to scaling, and he explores the potential of AI and large language models (LLMs) in revolutionizing customer success. 

Plus, Elias offers his insights on private equity and M&A and gives us his practical advice for founders, stressing the value of transparency, decisiveness, and direct customer interaction. We’ll also hear about Elias’ podcast The American Dream and he shares his aspirations for Agency to redefine customer engagement with small, agile teams. 

What we talk about:
2:24 – Why is Elias creating another company?
3:52 – What was Elias’ dream before becoming an entrepreneur?
5:30 – What were some of the key moments on Elias’ journey to becoming an entrepreneur?
8:05 – What is it about “The Valley” that lends itself to startup success?
8:48 – What was it that drove Elias to keep pushing after selling Performable?
10:16 – What are the top three lessons learned from HubSpot?
12:01 – What makes software suck?
12:56 – What makes a company special?
15:27 – Lessons learned from M&A.
19:10 – How hard is it to build a big company?
21:53 – What problems does Agency aim to solve?
24:14 – How does the AI wave differ from the other technology waves from the last 20 years?
26:44 – Where would Elias be today if Drift had failed?
30:51 – What does Agency mean for businesses?

See more from Elias here:

• American Dream on YouTube
• American Dream on Apple
• American Dream on Spotify

Learn more about AssemblyAI here.

In this episode of Superhuman AI: Decoding the Future, Zain and Hassan sit down with Mike Murchison, co-founder and CEO of Ada, an AI-powered customer service platform. Mike takes us through the journey of Ada’s creation, detailing its early roots and the experiences that shaped its mission to revolutionize customer service through AI. He discusses the transformative impact of AI on customer service roles and how it’s reshaping the industry.

Drawing from his firsthand experience as a contact center representative, Mike explains how Ada’s development was deeply informed by the challenges he faced in the field. Plus, he explains how this hands-on insight helped Ada secure its first clients, who quickly became advocates for the platform.

Mike also shares key moments in Ada's development, including a strategic pivot to focus solely on customer service and the re-architecture of their platform around language models. He highlights the rapid advancements in AI, particularly in language and voice technology, and underscores the importance of staying agile and continuously learning to remain at the cutting edge of AI applications in customer service.

What we talk about:
1:24 – What is Ada?
4:01 – What does AI mean for the future of customer service?
6:53 – How did Mike build Ada and find his audience?
9:50 – What does Ada get right when it comes to customer service?
11:20 – What were some of the make-or-break points for Ada?
17:41 – Is Ada going to utilize voice models?
19:53 – What gives Ada its unfair advantage over the competition?
22:55 – What are Mike’s thoughts on Perplexity AI?
24:47 – How else is Mike using Ada in the office?
26:35 – How is the Ada team tackling AI hallucinations?
28:20 – What is the market like right now for AI entrepreneurs?
32:14 – Which industries will become the first to bring in wider adoption of AI tools?
34:04 – What should first-time founders be thinking about?

Learn More about AssemblyAI here.

In this episode of Superhuman AI: Decoding the Future, Zain and Hassan speak with Luke Kim, co-founder and CEO of Liner, to explore the journey of building a successful AI search tool. Luke recounts Liner’s beginnings as a simple highlighter extension and its evolution into a specialized AI-powered search tool. Plus, Luke gives us a look into the strategic choices behind developing an AI-driven academic tool and the lessons learned along the way.

We hear about the company’s relocation to Silicon Valley and how the team fuelled Liner’s early growth. And Luke shares his experience of angel investments and a Series A round led by Korean venture capitalists, drawn to Liner’s strong international user base. 

We also learn about Liner’s technical and competitive strategies, focusing on providing verified, reliable sources perfect for higher education users and setting it apart in a crowded AI space. Luke also shares his insights on utilizing a blend of large language models—such as Lama, GPT, and Claude—to ensures both cost efficiency and superior search capabilities.

 
What we talk about:

What we talk about:

(1:14) - Who is Luke and what is Liner?

(4:15) - How did Liner secure its first (of 10 million) customers?

(6:37) - How did the move to Silicon Valley improve Liner?

(7:30) - How did Luke develop his network when he arrived in Silicon Valley?

(8:22) - How was Liner funded in the early days?

(11:56) - What did the journey from 1,000 to 10 million users look like?

(15:05) - How is Liner utilizing different LLMs?

(17:40) - How does Liner fact-check in order to deliver reliable results?

(20:23) - How does Liner rank results for its users?

(21:43) - What is the 10-year vision for Liner?

(24:58) - What advice does Luke have for entrepreneurs starting out in the AI space?

(27:01) - What are investors looking for in applied companies?

(29:16) - What is Luke most excited about in the AI space in the next 12 months?

To find out more about today’s sponsor, Assembly AI, follow the link: https://www.assemblyai.com/?utm_source=superhuman&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=link

In this episode of Superhuman AI: Decoding the Future, Zain and Hassan are joined by Steve Woods, Partner and CTO of iNovia Capital. Steve shares his unique path from academia to founding startups and scaling Google Canada from a small team of 10 to 2,000 employees. Steve reflects on his early work with Quack.com in the late 90s, and shares the importance of adding a human touch to technology.

Steve also discusses his years at Google, where he focused on nurturing internal talent over external hires, fostering a team-oriented culture and identifying key drivers within the organization, which he believes was essential for scalable growth and innovation, underscoring the value of team investment in building strong company foundations.

We also learn about Steve’s venture capital work and his investments in foundational AI models like Cohere and applications like Spellbook. Plus, Steve offers his advice to founders, encouraging openness, adaptability, and focus on team dynamics.

What we talk about:

• (1:28) – What’s it like working with Nobel Prize winner, Geoff Hinton?
• (3:20) – What made Steve swap academia for entrepreneurship?
• (5:22) – How did Steve develop the idea for Quack.com?
• (9:12) – What have been some similarities between the dot com, cloud and AI waves?
• (11:44) – Why Steve hired a Hollywood director.
• (14:08) – The importance of intensity.
• (17:55) – Why did Steve swap working on startups for working at Google?
• (21:18) – What are some tips Steve has for founders looking to scale aggressively?
• (24:48) – How does Steve manage working with different founders with different approaches?
• (27:46) – Can the app layer retain value, or will model builders dominate instead?
• (30:26) – Has product lost value to brand and distribution in app growth?
• (32:12) – What advice does Steve have for new founders and what industries is he excited by?

In this episode of Superhuman AI: Decoding the Future, Zain and Hassan sit down with Riley Brown, content creation expert and founder of Create.Inc. Riley discusses the transformative impact of AI tools like Claude Artifacts in democratizing content creation and app development, enabling non-coders to build applications and generate content more easily. With over half a million followers as an AI influencer, Riley reflects on his journey from marketing analytics to using AI and no-code platforms for app creation. 

Riley highlights the growing importance of authentic content creation and the strategic use of social media to fuel business-growth and he explains how the intersection of content and product development presents massive opportunities for creators and entrepreneurs alike. 

We also learn how AI interactions will play a significant role in shaping user experiences, further transforming how we engage with technology. And we learn why creators need to continue to adapt to emerging trends in AI to stay ahead, and why combining creativity with innovative tech will enable creators to seize the opportunities of tomorrow.

What we talk about:

• (1:17) – Who is Riley Brown?
• (2:30) – What are ‘composer creators’?
• (5:20) – The difficulties of content creation.
• (9:29) – Where does content creation start?
• (11:06) – What is the no-code AI revolution?
• (13:47) – The importance of curiosity and consistency.
• (14:47) – How do you go from zero coding experience to entering the app space?
• (16:07) – The challenges of creating new apps.
• (18:11) – Building apps for enterprise-level users.
• (20:32) – What are Riley’s favourite platforms for building audiences?
• (23:36) – What advice does Riley have for content creators just starting out?
• (28:02) – What are the distribution strategies Riley recommends?
• (30:27) – What are Riley’s predictions for the content creation space in the next year?