The Panel

By Justin Jackson, Brian Casel, Jordan GalBusiness Entrepreneurship Technology

The Panel episodes

April 03Respite from the Dopamine Machine
Why doesn't AI prompt us more often if it's so smart? Ryan Hefner joins us to chat about our daily drivers for shoes, IDE, AI provider, getting the news, and planning a vacation.
Timestamps:
(00:07) - Introducing Ryan Hefner
(03:53) - Today's topic: how we choose our daily drivers
(04:54) - Updates with Justin
(08:54) - Update from Brian
(14:16) - Ryan's Launch week concept
(23:04) - The concept of daily drivers in life
(25:35) - Daily driver shoes
(29:58) - Daily driver IDE
(33:31) - Remote controlling Claude
(44:44) - Daily driver for AI
(50:09) - We often stick with a product even when a new one would be more efficient or helpful
(53:37) - Daily driver for getting the news
(01:04:32) - Daily drivers for vacations
(01:15:11) - AI needs to be prompting us more
(01:22:01) - Daily driver for voice transcription
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Links mentioned in this episode:
Transistor helps publish TBPN video podcast on Apple Podcasts
Brian's job posting
Ryan's new app: Launch Weeks
Freek's new app
OpenAI buys TBPN for hundreds of millions
T3 Code editor
OpenAI Codex
Superset.sh
Conductor
Solo
CMUX
Codex plugin for Claude Code
Surf.social
Tangle news
Ground News
1 hr 30 min
March 27Can AI be your CRM?
Justin's hosting this one and he brought along Ben Curtis from Honeybadger to talk about how AI can be a CRM and also your designer.
Timestamps:
(00:15) - Introducing Ben Curtis
(02:57) - How is Honeybadger using AI?
(06:35) - How do you determine which model to use for different problems?
(09:33) - How are we using AI in marketing and sales?
(24:09) - How Steve Schoger used AI to design
(33:32) - How much longer will websites matter?
(38:47) - How intelligent are LLMs at product market fit?
(44:40) - Transistor Update: Video podcast hosting + Ghost integration
(47:18) - What Honeybadger is working on
(50:26) - Updates from Brian's work
YOU ARE THE PANEL – send us your thoughts 🗣️
🎤 Send us an audio or video message
📧 Email us: [email protected]
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🦋 Reply on Bluesky
Links mentioned in this episode:
Ghost CMS
Claude AI
Codex by OpenAI
Hatchbox for Deployment
Figma
Google Stitch
Tailwind CSS
Claude MCP for Figma
@SteveSchoger designs with Claude
58 min
March 21Scam or no scam? (with Jordan)
It's Jordan's turn to host and he's got some AI companies he's not sure about...
Timestamps:
(00:06) - Jordan's episode to host!
(01:19) - Business update from Brian
(05:45) - Justin's business update
(14:09) - How Jordan advertises to his existing customers
(21:50) - Jordan's business update
(28:48) - Is Polsia fake or real?
(40:47) - Adam Wathan announces ui.sh
(58:12) - Is Delve AI compliance a scam?
(01:14:45) - Where is OpenClaw today and what's the point?
YOU ARE THE PANEL – send us your thoughts 🗣️
🎤 Send us an audio or video message
📧 Email us: [email protected]
📺 Leave a comment on YouTube
🦋 Reply on Bluesky
Links mentioned in this episode:
GStack — Turn Claude Code into a Virtual Software Development Team
Polsia — AI That Runs Your Company While You Sleep
This AI generates $689K - Business Podcast for Startups
ui.sh — Turn your terminal into a design engineer
Stitch - Design with AI
Basecamp — Basecamp CLI and Agent Skill: Agent first, agent native
Delve | SOC 2 Compliance, HIPAA | Automated Compliance for AI, Startups | Get GDPR, ISO 27001, Cybersecurity Compliant & More | Delve Automated Compliance
Delve - Fake Compliance as a Service - Part I
Gusto | Online HR Services: Payroll, Benefits and everything else
OpenClaw AI - Open Source AI Assistant | Formerly Clawdbot & Moltbot
Claude
1 hr 33 min
March 14The money tunnel
Brian, Justin, and Jordan talk about the opportunity costs in business decision-making, the impact of AI on marketing channels and strategies, and building custom internal tools with AI versus SaaS solutions.
Timestamps:
(00:44) - Brian takes the lead
(02:17) - Opportunity costs
(17:29) - What is Brian's opportunity on Twitter?
(21:41) - Figuring out what Builder Methods is and who it's for
(24:53) - Should Brian hire someone to help achieve his goal?
(28:47) - How is AI killing Saas
(39:54) - People will want their own agent to use the softare, not a company's AI
(51:07) - Jordan's CRM experiment
YOU ARE THE PANEL – send us your thoughts 🗣️
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📧 Email us: [email protected]
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Links:
Builder Methods Pro
Brian's YouTube
56 min
March 06A rainbow of internet fantasies
What happened to you in Mexico? Justin is back from his co-founder retreat with Jon on Holbox Island. He gets vulnerable about the drift that naturally happens in a remote co-founder relationship, the big conversations they'd been avoiding, and the realization that alignment isn't a one-time thing (it requires constant investment!). Jordan and Brian weigh in on co-founder dynamics, decision-making in a 50/50 partnership, and why strategy has to belong to a key decision maker.
The conversation then spills into the "Mexican standoff" happening on teams as AI reshapes who does what and whether that's something to fear (or lean into).
Timestamps:
(00:06) - Introduction
(01:47) - Justin and Jon's founder retreat
(06:44) - Using video as an example of how to communicate with cofounders
(09:45) - It's not a marriage, it's a dictatorship
(12:12) - What do goals look like for a company?
(20:48) - Video is hard and heavy... should we do it?
(24:22) - What Jordan's done to help alignment on his team
(29:46) - What about Jon's side of the conversation?
(39:46) - Navigating new work dynamics with the speed of AI
(46:56) - There are smart developers resisting AI - why?
(54:24) - A Mexican standoff on teams
(01:06:47) - Company design and system design
YOU ARE THE PANEL – send us your thoughts 🗣️
🎤 Send us an audio or video message
📧 Email us: [email protected]
📺 Leave a comment on YouTube
🦋 Reply on Bluesky
Links mentioned in this episode:
Holbox Island
Photos from co-founder retreat
Article: The five stages of losing our craft
Article: Will Claude Code ruin our team?
Jack Dorsey lays off 931 workers
Polsia - this weird AI driven SaaS making $2m! (You give it an idea, provide a budget/credit card, and it autonomously launches the business)
More on Ben Cera, founder of Polsia
The Amazing Money Machine book cover
1 hr 27 min
February 27Embracing our AI business owning bots
Brian and Jordan talk about the need for developers to adapt to survive, Brian debates how much of a content creator he is vs product seller, Jordan relates his experience talking with investors, and the rise of zero human companies ZHC.
Timestamps:
(00:18) - Welcoming Justin er Jordan back to the show
(02:48) - Companies that we're surprised aren't adopting AI tools
(11:49) - Roles are blending together
(20:18) - Is Brian a product person or creator?
(33:36) - Or should he be doing consulting?
(37:27) - Debating taking funding for Saas
(48:10) - Zero Human Companies
YOU ARE THE PANEL – send us your thoughts 🗣️
🎤 Send us an audio or video message
📧 Email us: [email protected]
📺 Leave a comment on YouTube
🦋 Reply on Bluesky
Links mentioned in this episode:
Matt Pocock on X: "Something that I think goes under-emphasized is how much AI coding demands a 'lead dev' mentality. If you spent your pre-AI career trying to level up your teammates (through API design, feedback loops, architecture) Then working with AI will feel natural. If you only focused"
Extend Claude with skills - Claude Code Docs
About - Gauntlet AI
Austen Allred on X: "Kelly (my AI bot) used 5 subagents to one-shot this app end to end. Zero human involvement. Insane. She’s building App Store worthy apps entirely by herself on the daily now."
Tom Osman 🐦‍⬛ on X: "I work on the assumption that the most powerful AI models are far more intelligent than me. My job is just to assist when needed. This morning I gave @JunoAgent a Deep Research model to explore different token design routes based on what we're working on. This came out 👇🏻"
57 min
February 20A surprise announcement
We make 2 big announcements about changes to The Panel. Then we debate whether there's a founder branding advantage and how AI will affect small software teams in 2026.
Timestamps:
(00:46) - Our first announcement
(02:20) - Why are we bringing Jordan on as a co-host?
(06:51) - Why did Jordan want to join The Panel?
(14:48) - What's the new format for The Panel?
(18:29) - Is there a founder branding advantage?
(37:03) - How is AI going to affect Saas in 2026 and beyond?
(43:32) - How small teams can adapt easier than larger teams to AI
YOU ARE THE PANEL – send us your thoughts 🗣️
🎤 Send us an audio or video message
📧 Email us: [email protected]
📺 Leave a comment on YouTube
🦋 Reply on Bluesky
Links mentioned in this episode:
Bootstrapped Web
Marketing for Developers
A Mexican standoff Happening in AI
The five stages of losing our craft
Justin is the co-founder of Transistor.fm
Brian is the founder of Builder Methods
Jordan is the co-founder of Rosie
54 min
February 19 Changes coming to The Panel podcast
Important: we're no longer livestreaming on Justin's personal YouTube channel. Make sure you're subscribed to The Panel's channel to get notified when we go live:
Subscribe to The Panel YouTube here -->
Join us FRIDAY (tomorrow, Feb 20) at 11 AM Pacific (2 pm EST) for a surprise announcement:
https://www.youtube.com/live/sxASjnzAYkw
We'll be announcing:
- A new ███████ ██████ ████
- And a brand new ████ ███████
- New livestream/recording time: Friday, 11 am Pacific
- Livestreams will now be streamed from The Panel YT channel, not Justin's personal channel
2 min
February 13Get to the sauna!
Brian and Justin jump off Matt Shumer's "Something Big is Happening" article to ask questions like is something big happening in AI that even regular folks need to be preparing for? Is this the most important year of your work as a software developer? Should you be getting your financial house in order to prepare for what's about to hit us all?
Timestamps:
(00:12) - Sick snow
(02:46) - Something big is happening here (AI edition)
(21:02) - Not having to be held down by legacy code speeds you up
(28:36) - Warnings to the non-technical world about AI
(45:35) - Humans have a hard time assessing their field of view in the future
(48:55) - This might be the most important year of your work
(51:12) - AI in education with kids
(56:05) - Seeing the world the way it is vs the way it was
(58:23) - Getting your financial house in order
(01:04:14) - The job market and the economy
(01:13:00) - Sometimes you have to play the game not on the field
YOU ARE THE PANEL – send us your thoughts 🗣️
🎤 Send us an audio or video message
📧 Email us: [email protected]
📺 Leave a comment on YouTube
🦋 Reply on Bluesky
Links mentioned in this episode:
Justin's snowboard adventure in Revelstoke
"Something Big is Happening" – The viral Matt Shumer article (76M views)
Matt Shumer's blog
Matt Shumer's company (HyperWrite)
"Tool Shaped Objects" – The response to Shumer's post
Justin's new RSS feed
Builder Methods video library (Claude Code course)
Moneyball: "Adapt or die" clip
Justin's post on XSLT going away
1 hr 25 min
February 06OpenClaw and Building Fake Apps
Come meet the crew of AI agents Brian has working for him, Justin's building fake apps to experiment and find out what he wants for real apps, and why don't we feel like we can relax now that we're doing ok?
Timestamps:
(00:45) - What we're talking about this episode
(03:14) - Brian's OpenClaw setup
(11:57) - The cost of token usage with OpenClaw
(17:32) - What makes the memory better in OpenClaw?
(22:38) - What about Cowork?
(25:21) - Working with multiple agents in OpenClaw
(27:07) - The problem of Siri
(29:25) - The challenges of working is the same across AI or hiring
(31:28) - The importance of thinking of AI as an employee
(35:03) - What you'll miss by using AI instead of hiring a human
(44:14) - Why Justin thinks it's important to build fake products
(49:57) - Justin's app to publish a video as a podcast
(53:41) - Building a company to compete with yourself like Freshbooks
(55:39) - How might Transistor change bringing in new features?
(01:04:07) - Design OS updates
(01:09:01) - Why is Brian working all the time and feeling urgency?
(01:16:26) - Marketing for developers in 2026
(01:30:37) - Founder led marketing is key
(01:36:27) - Where are the real products being built with AI? Is AI actually speeding me up?
(01:46:31) - Do I need to make as much money as possible now?
YOU ARE THE PANEL – send us your thoughts 🗣️
🎤 Send us an audio or video message
📧 Email us: [email protected]
📺 Leave a comment on YouTube
🦋 Reply on Bluesky
Links mentioned in this episode:
OpenClaw (Clawdbot)
Brian’s crew of AI agents that live on his Mac Mini
OpenClaw popularity on GitHub over time
Demo of Justin’s video hosting app
The story of how Freshbooks created a fake company to launch a new version of their product
Caleb Porzio - Everything I feel about AI right now
Jeffrey Way - I'm done
Adam Wathan - ui.sh
1 hr 55 min

About The Panel

From the publisher's feed

Three founders, Justin Jackson, Brian Casel, and Jordan Gal, discuss product strategy in the age of AI, wins/misses, and ultimately, how to build a better business and a better life.