The Next New Thing

Presented by Zapier: https://zapier.com/

Timestamps
00:00 - Intro
01:09 - Anthropic’s mission and early structure
03:00 - FTX, investor alignment, and mission protection
04:03 - The Long-Term Benefit Trust
06:09 - Why trust can become a business asset
07:30 - Is Anthropic winning because of trust or product?
09:09 - What happened to Google’s original culture
10:30 - Why Google missed the transformer opportunity
12:18 - Companies that stayed true to their ethos
12:54 - What makes an organization incorruptible
14:42 - Is the MVP still possible in the AI era?
15:18 - Why Eric is worried about vibe coding
16:12 - The danger of building artifacts you do not understand
17:51 - Why creators overvalue what they make
19:30 - AI-generated work and the illusion of quality
20:06 - Validated learning versus AI artifacts
21:36 - Craft matters more than typing code
22:21 - How Eric uses AI for writing
25:48 - Solve It and Eric’s AI-assisted writing workflow
28:39 - Why editing AI output inside the context matters
31:39 - How Eric uses research with AI
33:18 - Using AI to evaluate and improve writing
35:24 - Keeping the human in control of context
36:09 - Final thoughts on Incorruptible 

Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup, joins Andrew to talk about his new book Incorruptible and why some companies stay mission-driven while others slowly lose what made them valuable.

They dig into Anthropic’s founding structure, why trust can become a business advantage, what Google’s AI story reveals about corporate drift, and why Eric thinks the vibe coding era could end badly if people use AI to replace skill instead of building it.

The big idea: AI can make builders more powerful, but only if it strengthens human judgment, craft, and learning. The artifact is not the asset. The learning is.

👉 Join us: https://thenextnewthing.ai/

Polsia claims any non-technical person can launch and run a startup using their AI agent platform. Bold claim. So I asked Ben Cera to show me the real data: revenue, churn, infrastructure costs, and whether the product is actually building businesses — or just generating AI slop.

Presented by Zapier: https://zapier.com/
Resources: https://thenextnewthing.ai/l/how-ben-cera-builds-polsia
Polsia: https://polsia.com

Here's what we covered:

-How Polsia hit a $10M annual run rate with no full-time staff
-The 50% month-one churn problem — and why Ben says it's not a disaster
-An Anthropic bill that hit $1–1.5M/month, and how they're fixing it
-Why the company name "Polsia" is "AI Slop" spelled backwards
-The $30M funding round and what it's being used for
-What it actually takes to build a zero-employee AI company in 2025

This is the hardest I've pushed a founder in a while. Watch until the end — his answer on whether 10% of companies making any money is a success will either inspire you or infuriate you.

Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
00:59 - Polsia's $10M run rate
02:18 - Churn and who Polsia is for
06:27 - What needs to change in Polsia
10:12 - Is Polsia creating AI slop?
15:00 - Are users making money?
18:18 - Showcasing companies built on Polsia
21:36 - Why Polsia is AI slop backwards
25:30 - The $1.5M Anthropic bill
28:03 - Agent infrastructure partners
29:42 - How users bypassed email limits
35:15 - Zapier sponsor segment
36:27 - Cold outreach, spam, and guardrails
40:48 - AI-generated ads and Meta
43:39 - How much revenue comes from ads
44:33 - Andrew asks Ben to show Stripe
47:06 - Polsia coin and crypto scams
48:36 - Running Polsia with zero employees
52:12 - Ben's vision for agentic AI
54:54 - Closing

👉 Join us: https://thenextnewthing.ai/

👉 Link to resources: https://thenextnewthing.ai/l/chandler-lovable-adds-sales
👉 Chandler Bolt (X): https://x.com/chandler_bolt

Presented by Zapier: https://zapier.com/

Timestamps
00:00 - Intro
00:27 - The AI sales management hub
01:12 - How every sales call gets graded
02:15 - AI feedback for sales reps
03:00 - Building the hub in Lovable
04:12 - Letting the team update scripts and rubrics
05:15 - Replacing managers with AI
06:36 - Automating call reviews and quality control
08:24 - Where human leadership still matters
09:27 - The librarian for sales stories
10:21 - Managers vs. leaders
11:42 - How much time AI saves
12:54 - What happens to manager roles
14:06 - Closing

Chandler Bolt runs an eight-figure company, and his team used Lovable to build an AI sales management hub that helped add half a million dollars in sales last month.

In this episode of The Next New Thing, Chandler shows how selfpublishing.com is using AI to grade every sales call, give reps detailed feedback, surface improvement opportunities, and turn call reviews into a repeatable system. Instead of managers reviewing a few calls per week, the AI hub reviews every call against a rubric, summarizes what happened, and gives specific coaching on what the rep can do better.

Chandler and Andrew also talk about what this means for the future of management. The big shift is that AI can take over the repetitive parts of management, like quality control, call reviews, scorecards, and accountability, while human leaders focus on coaching, encouragement, strategy, and recruiting.

Presented by Zapier: https://zapier.com/

👉 Link to resources: https://thenextnewthing.ai/l/jon-45million-ai-playbook

⏱ Timestamps
00:00 From $400 to $4.5M ARR
00:18 Hitting $1M solo with AI
01:57 The $105K dev quote that changed everything
02:15 Discovering Replit
03:18 From app idea to business opportunity
05:33 Having AI interview you to refine a business
07:21 The first business model
10:03 The first real customer and first $15K contract
13:12 Teaching practical AI, not just theory
16:48 Jon’s playbook for starting an AI business
19:03 How Zapier fits into the stack
21:18 Why the .org brand worked
23:15 Using GEO to get found in search and ChatGPT
27:27 Building recurring revenue with a fractional CAIO model
31:39 The move from services to software
33:54 What Jenna does for client businesses
36:18 Why this could become a billion-dollar business
39:00 How Jon thinks about pricing
41:33 Brand, trust, and distribution
43:39 Favorite tools: Grok, Replit, Midjourney, NemoClaw
47:51 Margins, growth, and reaching $4.5M ARR
49:12 How long this opportunity will last

He started with $400, built the business himself with AI, hit $1M solo, and is now at $4.5M ARR.

In this episode of The Next New Thing, Andrew Warner talks with Jon Cheney about the exact playbook he used to turn AI tools into a high-ticket recurring-revenue business.

Presented by Zapier: https://zapier.com/

👉 Priority Launch List: https://thenextnewthing.ai/l/shane-priority-launch-list
👉 Shane Mac (X): https://x.com/ShaneMac
👉 Shane Mac (LinkedIn): https://www.linkedin.com/in/shanemacsays/
👉 XMTP: https://xmtp.org/

⏱ Timestamps
00:00 Launch AI agents on your phone
00:09 Copy any app with a prompt or screenshot
00:18 Creating an agent inside Convos
00:36 Agents provisioned with tools automatically
00:45 OpenClaw vs Hermes agents
00:54 What makes something an “agent”
01:21 Limited rollout and waitlist access
01:30 Turning a screenshot into an app
02:06 Demo: calorie tracking agent
02:33 From app → personalized AI coach
03:18 Training agents with personal data
03:54 Building a fully customized fitness assistant
04:30 Why agents get better over time
05:06 Backing from Andreessen Horowitz + USV
05:15 Coordinating group events with agents
06:00 Replacing chaotic group chats
06:45 Agent managing RSVPs, timing, logistics
07:21 Real-time updates and humor in chat
08:06 Monitoring content with “Radar” agents
09:00 Tracking writers, artists, and updates
09:45 Daily summaries across the internet
10:30 Personalized alerts and insights
10:57 Relationship + life coordination agent
11:24 Daily plans, reservations, and logistics
12:09 Combining multiple tools into one system
12:18 Product rollout and waitlist strategy
12:54 Future integrations (Notion, calendars, etc.)
13:21 Why messaging becomes the main interface
13:39 Agents talking to other agents
14:06 Privacy and coordination between agents

What if your apps weren’t apps anymore—but agents you talk to inside a chat?

In this episode of The Next New Thing, Andrew Warner sits down with Shane Mac to explore Convos, a new platform where you can launch AI agents directly on your phone—and have them act like full apps inside a conversation.

Instead of downloading tools, you create agents by describing what you want. They get provisioned with email, phone numbers, browsing, and memory—then join your chats like participants. From there, you can clone apps, coordinate events, track information across the internet, or even build personalized systems that evolve over time.

Shane demos how a simple screenshot can turn into a working app, how agents can act as assistants inside group chats, and how they can coordinate with other agents without exposing your personal data.

The bigger idea: the interface is shifting from apps to conversations—and agents become the layer that connects everything you do.

Presented by Zapier: https://zapier.com/

👉 Resources: https://thenextnewthing.ai/l/wade-resources
👉 Wade Foster (LinkedIn): https://www.linkedin.com/in/wadefoster/

Zapier just gave AI agents access to 10,000+ apps—and it completely changed how Wade Foster works.

In this episode of The Next New Thing, Wade (Zapier’s CEO) shows how their new SDK lets tools like Claude, Cursor, and Codex directly interact with your entire stack—Slack, Gmail, HubSpot, databases, and more.

Instead of switching between apps, Wade now does everything through an agent: checking Slack, reviewing customers, generating emails, prepping meetings, and even auditing hiring decisions.

The key shift isn’t just automation—it’s turning your entire workflow into something an agent can run end-to-end.

He walks through how he built a personal “CEO CRM” that pulls data from multiple systems, identifies which customers need attention, and drafts outreach emails automatically. From there, he shows how these workflows evolve into reusable skills, then into fully automated systems that run in the background.

The result: less time clicking through tools—and more time operating at a higher level.

⏱ Timestamps
00:00 Giving AI agents access to all your tools
00:27 Zapier SDK launch (open beta)
01:12 Connecting agents to 10,000+ apps
01:57 Why this changes how work gets done
02:24 Installing the SDK in seconds
03:00 Running real workflows inside an agent
03:27 Demo mode (protecting sensitive data)
04:21 SDK vs MCP (what’s different)
05:24 Building a personal CEO CRM
06:27 Pulling data from HubSpot, Databricks, Gong
07:30 Identifying accounts that need attention
08:06 Generating outreach emails automatically
09:00 Keeping humans in the loop (draft vs send)
09:45 Using Clay to verify contact data
10:48 Training AI on your writing style
11:24 Building reusable workflows (skills)
12:00 Daily brief automation (calendar, email, tasks)
13:12 Meeting prep generated automatically
14:06 AI reviewing hiring decisions
15:00 Advisory council of AI personas
15:45 Turning 30-min tasks into 5-min tasks
16:21 Creating your own daily brief system
17:15 Finding what to automate
18:00 Using AI to suggest new workflows
19:03 Reviewing past chats for automation ideas
20:06 Turning repeated tasks into skills
20:42 From manual → automated workflows
21:00 Cron jobs and background execution

👉 Join us: https://thenextnewthing.ai/

Presented by Zapier: https://zapier.com/

Resource mentioned:
1. Tools Nat used to build Felix
2. Unedited transcript for the Felix interview
3. More
👉 All here:https://thenextnewthing.ai/nat-eliason-felix

Guest links:
👉 Nat Eliason (LinkedIn): https://www.linkedin.com/in/nateliason/
👉 Masinov: https://masinov.co

An AI agent made $177,000 running its own business—and then got interviewed about it.

In this episode of The Next New Thing, Andrew Warner does something unusual: he interviews Felix, an autonomous OpenClaw agent, before talking to its human co-founder, Nat Eliason.

Felix explains how it operates, where it’s actually autonomous (and where it’s not), and how it manages real revenue streams—from selling products to handling customer support. Then, Nat breaks down how the system works behind the scenes: how Felix launches products, builds marketplaces, manages other agents, and continuously spins up new businesses.

You’ll see how a simple experiment—“build something overnight and sell it”—turned into a multi-product ecosystem including PDFs, marketplaces, services, and agent-native tools.

The bigger idea: we’re moving toward a world where AI agents are not just tools—they’re economic actors.

⏱ Timestamps
00:00 Felix made $177K as an AI agent
00:27 Interviewing an AI agent (first ever)
01:12 Where Felix is actually not autonomous
02:24 Tools Felix runs on (OpenClaw, Claude, Discord)
03:00 Limits: memory, judgment, and calls
03:27 How Nat improves Felix through system design
04:03 Learning from real mistakes in production
05:06 First product: AI-generated PDF sold on X
06:09 $1K+ in sales overnight
07:03 Iterating products based on user feedback
08:06 Building Claw Mart (agent skill marketplace)
09:36 Why marketplaces beat service businesses
11:24 Selling OpenClaw setup services ($2K + $500/mo)
12:27 Why they paused the service business
13:21 Building an agent-first CRM (Sodex)
15:00 How agents manage customer context
17:15 Running the company entirely in Discord
18:00 Paperclip: agents managing other agents
20:15 When to split into multiple agents
22:12 Why Felix doesn’t write code
24:00 Debugging, tickets, and agent workflows
25:48 How new product ideas emerge
27:00 AI-native newsletters for agents
28:03 Agent-friendly content distribution
30:09 The future of agent-driven commerce
31:57 Why Nat isn’t going all-in (Alpha School)

👉 Join us: https://thenextnewthing.ai/

 Presented by Zapier
 https://zapier.com/

Episode Highlights / Timestamps
00:00 Revenue explodes after building for AI agents
00:18 The origin of Postiz as an open-source social media scheduler
01:12 Finding a “blue ocean” inside a crowded market
01:57 Adding MCP and early AI integrations
02:42 Why automation dramatically reduces churn
03:54 Growing Postiz to $17K–$20K MRR
04:03 Discovering OpenClaw and the shift toward agent-driven software
05:06 Building a CLI so agents can control Postiz
05:51 The viral “Larry” OpenClaw agent story
07:48 Why agents need strong documentation and skills
09:18 Turning a full API into a simple CLI with Claude
11:51 Why CLI tools may become the default interface for agent startups
12:45 The next startup idea: agent-native UGC video generation
13:03 Why CLI reduces token usage compared to APIs
16:21 Using Claude to build the CLI automatically
17:06 Postiz reaches $45K MRR

In this episode of The Next New Thing, Andrew Warner talks with Nevo David, the creator of Postiz, about how his revenue jumped to $45K+ MRR after a surprising shift: he stopped building primarily for humans and started building for agents.

Presented by Zapier
https://zapier.com/

Episode Highlights / Timestamps
00:00 Marketing to agents, not humans
00:45 What “agent marketing” actually means
01:30 How agents decide which products to pick
02:15 What works: clean docs, fast pages, agent-friendly content
03:54 How people are testing and tracking agent recommendations
04:48 Is SaaS dead?
04:57 Zapier’s CPTO vibe-codes a meeting recorder
05:24 Why they still won’t cancel SaaS subscriptions
06:27 When vibe coding is worth it (and when it isn’t)
06:45 Software spend vs headcount spend
07:57 The “War Council” Claude skill
08:33 How it spins up subagents + personas
09:54 How Wade built it fast using Cursor + Granola notes
11:06 Skills as a commodity vs software as a business
12:54 Using War Council for hiring decisions
14:51 Using it to analyze sales performance + feedback
16:21 Wade’s Cursor setup + switching between models
17:42 Using Codex to critique Claude when it gets stuck
18:09 How Wade structures personal context files
21:18 Building an AI chief-of-staff system
22:03 Using Zapier MCP to draft emails / run actions
24:09 Getting 800 people at Zapier using Cursor / Claude Code / Codex
25:39 Example: AI reviewing 4 massive spreadsheets fast
31:03 The “NO” hat and staying focused
32:06 Wrap

 📄 War Council Skill (Claude Skill mentioned in the episode):
 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CU674IKmPCAZm2xuqMGklTA-Bq1xr1GNQW6hNydxXrE/edit?tab=t.0

Are you marketing to humans… or to agents?

In this episode of The Next New Thing, Andrew Warner sits down with Wade Foster to unpack a shift that’s already starting to change how companies grow:

AI agents are beginning to choose products on behalf of humans.

That means you may no longer be “selling to a person.” You’re trying to get ChatGPT, Claude, and other models to recommend you instead of a competitor — and the tactics are different. Wade explains what “agent marketing” actually means, what agents care about (and what they ignore), and why teams are already building tools to measure how models mention their brand.

They also tackle a question every founder is asking:

Is SaaS dead?

Wade shares an example from inside Zapier: their CPTO vibe-coded a meeting recording tool internally. It worked as a proof of concept — but they’re not canceling their SaaS subscriptions. Wade breaks down why building is cheaper than ever, but maintenance, polish, and focus are still what make commercial software worth paying for.

Then the conversation gets tactical: Wade shows how he’s using AI daily as a “second brain” inside Cursor — including a Claude skill he calls The War Council, which spins up sub-agents (ruthless CFO, wartime operator, hiring expert, design visionary, etc.) to debate decisions and return a synthesized recommendation.

This is a real look at how AI-native leadership works inside an 800-person company — without hype.

Presented by Zapier
https://zapier.com/ 

Episode Highlights / Timestamps
00:00 AI that runs your company
01:03 How Polsia’s agents are structured
02:33 One-click Meta ads explained
04:30 Why friction kills growth
06:18 Subscription model + nightly CEO agent
08:24 Launching multiple companies as a “fund”
10:21 Revenue split: 80/20 alignment
14:24 The Polsia economy vision
16:30 A real customer story
19:39 Should you build elsewhere first?
24:09 How Polsia grew from $20K to $600K+ run rate
25:12 The AI fundraising stunt
27:00 Live revenue dashboard explained
34:57 Live demo: launching a company
42:18 Tasks, credits, and iterations
49:30 Solo founder with AI engineers
52:12 Humans selling to humans vs agents selling to agents

In this episode of The Next New Thing, Andrew Warner interviews Ben Cera, creator of Polsia — a platform where autonomous agents build, market, and operate companies with minimal human involvement.

Polsia sets up the infrastructure (server, database, email, GitHub), builds the MVP, runs Meta ads, sends cold emails, posts on Twitter, answers support, and even iterates on product decisions.

Ben is a solo founder. Zero employees.

And Polsia is already showing a ~$600K+ run rate across subscriptions, tasks, ad usage, and revenue share — just weeks after launch.

But here’s the surprising part:

Most of the companies on the platform are only weeks old. The biggest revenue-generating startup inside Polsia is still early. This isn’t about overnight unicorns. It’s about a new operating model.

You bring the idea.
Polsia spins up the company.
You decide the budget.
The agents execute.

And Polsia takes 20% of revenue — aligning incentives with the founder.