Transcript
If You Want To Create Wealth In The Age of AI, Watch This
From Greg Isenberg · Episode page · Watch on YouTube
· 22 min · 3,812 words · 25 timestamped sections
This is the full, timestamped transcript of "If You Want To Create Wealth In The Age of AI, Watch This", an episode of Greg Isenberg published November 4, 2026 (22 min, about 3,812 words). It mentions 24 people, works and ideas, including Greg Isenberg, The Startup Ideas Podcast, Cars & Bids, Late Checkout, Hampton.
What this episode is about
In this episode, the hosts unpack what it means to build AI-proof businesses in a world saturated with automation, outlining concrete paths from enduring, non-automatable ventures (like physical services) to license- or regulation-driven opportunities and strategic partnerships. They guide listeners through thinking creatively about barriers to entry, the value of partnerships, and the underestimated power of attention and scalable media to fuel sustainable wealth. If you’re anxious about AI disruption, this episode offers practical frameworks to design income streams that endure into 2027 and beyond.
Key takeaways
- AI-proof your moat: blend physical or licensed leverage with human touch.
- Ignore the noise: focus on boring, essential services humans can’t be easily replicated.
- Attention is currency: build a niche media machine that makes your brand irreplaceable.
- Partner where it matters: licenses, regs, or trusted alliances outpace AI cloning.
- Embrace AI-enabled creation: systems and editors let you scale content without losing humanity.
Who speaks in this episode?
- Greg Isenberg (Host)
What is discussed, and when
- – 5:00: Opus 5.5, Grokbot, Salesforce, Microsoft
- – 10:00: Hampton, Greg Isenberg, Grokbot, ideabrowser.com
- – 15:00: Greg Isenberg, Cars & Bids, Grokbot, Claude Code
- – 20:00: Yelp, Google LLC, Merore, Micro1
- – 22:10: Greg Isenberg, The Startup Ideas Podcast, Fiverr, Upwork
Notable quotes from "If You Want To Create Wealth In The Age of AI, Watch This"
Right? So, for anyone who's kind of a little bit anxious about in a what that world looks right? And who want to basically build an asset, who want to create income for themsel, who.
about Greg Isenberg · atAnd I also mean if you have the ability, if you're likable or you have connections, or you can, use Grockbot or whatever to actually get you in front of the right people to go and create a deal with a.
about Grokbot · atLiked doing it. I hated the editing around it. Now I have Opus 5.5 as my editor. and I can go and create Shore Form on the fly when it works for me in my schedule. and I've actually been quite enjoying it.
about Opus 5.5 · atNiches and niche niches now than ever. And I think that there's an opportunity to use something like ideabrowser.com, use something like a Grockbot, use something like a Claude…
about ideabrowser.com · atMy friend Sam Par, has his company Hampton which is you know not affiliated but at all but what they do is like you know from what I understand like meetups around North.
about Hampton · atIn the car space, we all know cars and bids sold for a ton of money, many millions of dollars. there's so many examples of marketplaces that have gotten acquired for ridiculous amounts and ridiculous sums of money. Why?
about Cars & Bids · atGoogle reviews or Yelp reviews or just reviews of restaurants in general have gotten to a place where I don't know if you've noticed this, it's either like five star reviews or.
about Yelp · atSo, thank you for watching the Startup Ideas podcast and I'll see you next.
about The Startup Ideas Podcast · at
Who and what is mentioned in this episode?
People
- Greg Isenberg — Person · Host · 3 mentions · first at
Host and main speaker of the episode, presenting the framework for building 'AI-proof' businesses and giving examples and advice.
Companies & orgs
- Cars & Bids — Company · Referenced example (case study) · 1 mention · first at
Referenced as an example of a successful marketplace (in the car space) that sold for a high amount, illustrating the value of marketplaces/liquidity. - Late Checkout — Company · Host affiliation · 3 mentions · first at
Greg identifies himself as CEO of Late Checkout in the show notes/introduction, establishing his background and credibility. - Hampton — Company · Referenced example (case study) · 2 mentions · first at
Used as an example of a paid community/IRL events business that creates belonging and charges founders for curated meetups. - Reddit — Company · Referenced affiliation (past advisor mention) · 3 mentions · first at
Greg mentions having advised Reddit (part of his credibility statement in the show intro). - Salesforce — Company · Referenced example (permission/partnership) · 1 mention · first at
Used to illustrate 'permission' businesses: being a preferred vendor or partner of a large company (e.g., Salesforce) creates a barrier to instant copycats.Sell your product. That is a partnership that can't be copied on day one. So, what do I mean by that? Maybe you have an agency and you partner with Salesforce and you're one of…
- TikTok — Company · Referenced affiliation (past advisor mention) · 1 mention · first at
Greg references advising TikTok as part of his intro to establish credibility in tech/media.I've gotten like literally hundreds of thousands of views on that content. which is really cool. and people saying it's valuable. So there is literally no excuse to in 2026…
- Yelp — Company · Referenced example · 1 mention · first at
Referenced when discussing review quality and the opportunity for curated databases of higher-quality reviews (unique data / curated directories). - Apple Podcast — Company · Distribution channel · 3 mentions · first at
Listed as a platform where The Startup Ideas Podcast is available, indicating audience distribution.If you want more of this stuff in your feed, comment, and subscribe. I'm here to get your creative juices flowing. Here to help you navigate this crazy world we live in, with ideas.
- Spotify — Company · Distribution channel · 3 mentions · first at
Listed as a platform where the podcast is available, indicating audience distribution.If you want more of this stuff in your feed, comment, and subscribe. I'm here to get your creative juices flowing. Here to help you navigate this crazy world we live in, with ideas.
- Microsoft — Company · Referenced example (permission/partnership) · 1 mention · first at
Given as another example of a large partner where preferred-vendor relationships create defensibility.Salesforce and you're one of their preferred vendors or you're you know preferred vendor of Microsoft or it doesn't even need to be that big just a preferred vendor of a…
- final.com — Company · Referenced example (case study) · 1 mention · first at
Mentioned (as 'final lap.com'/final.com) as an example of a niche marketplace for high-end collectible cars, illustrating new marketplace mechanics.And basically what it is high I think like high-end collectible cars like every week you come to the site and you can bid on this like high-end collectible cars thing and they…
- Google LLC — Company · Referenced example · 1 mention · first at
Referenced when discussing review sources and plentiful content; used as part of the example around reviews (unique curated data need).Google reviews or Yelp reviews or just reviews of restaurants in general have gotten to a place where I don't know if you've noticed this, it's either like five star reviews or.
- Fiverr — Company · Referenced example · 1 mention · first at
Mentioned as a marketplace of freelance services to inspect demand and build automated agent-driven services that fulfill common gigs (outcomes category).Gave on the podcast before is like how do you look at platforms like Fiverr and Upwork, see what people want to pay for, and then create a essentially machine that goes and bids on some of this work.
- Upwork — Company · Referenced example · 1 mention · first at
Mentioned alongside Fiverr as a source of demand signals for building automated AI services that compete on outcomes.I just feel you don't see this very often and there's an opportunity. the example I gave on the podcast before is like how do you look at platforms like Fiverr and Upwork, see…
- Merore — Company · Referenced example (data broker) · 1 mention · first at
Mentioned as an example in the context of data brokers and companies selling specialized datasets to model labs; used to illustrate the unique data opportunity.A lot of these platforms like I think Merore and micro one and things like that they needed they were getting data coding data and they were selling it to the big models. Now…
- Micro1 — Company · Referenced example (data broker) · 1 mention · first at
Cited alongside Merore as an example of companies sourcing/selling datasets to model providers, illustrating the data-rich business opportunity.A lot of these platforms like I think Merore and micro one and things like that they needed they were getting data coding data and they were selling it to the big models. Now…
Products & tech
- Opus 5.5 — Product · Tool example · 1 mention · first at
Mentioned as Greg's editor (AI tool) that helps him produce short-form content more easily, illustrating how AI can amplify attention/media. - Grokbot — Product · Tool example · 3 mentions · first at
Mentioned as an example of a personal agent / automation tool that can help get meetings or partnerships — illustrating how AI agents can assist in building permission or partnership-based businesses. - ideabrowser.com — Product · Tool recommendation · 1 mention · first at
Suggested as a resource to monitor trends and spot first-mover opportunities in micro-niches (timing category). - Claude Code — Product · Tool example · 1 mention · first at
Mentioned as an example of a Claude product in the personal agent / developer tooling space to help run tasks and marketplaces.Ever. And I think that there's an opportunity to use something like ideabrowser.com, use something like a Grockbot, use something like a Claude Duo, any personal agent platform…
Places & events
- Nashville — Place · Event location · 1 mention · first at
Used as the setting for an IRL event Greg's team hosted for founders interested in deploying agents — example of belonging/IRL community demand.So much opportunity in IRL events. we just threw an IRL event was it last week in Nashville bringing around you know founders who are interested in deploying agents to build…
- North America — Place · Region for events (context) · 1 mention · first at
Referenced as the geographic scope for Hampton meetups and IRL events — illustrating where belonging communities operate.So much opportunity in IRL events. we just threw an IRL event was it last week in Nashville bringing around you know founders who are interested in deploying agents to build…
Media & podcasts
- The Startup Ideas Podcast — Media · Podcast (series) · 1 mention · first at
The show/series this episode belongs to; Greg references it and repurposes content from his podcast.
Full transcript with timestamps
We need to talk about how in an AI world, you can basically build any business, press a button and boom. Right? So, for anyone who's kind of a little bit anxious about in a what that world looks like, right? And who who want to basically build an asset, who want to create income for themsel, who want to build a business, scale a business, have that whole experience, what do AI proof businesses actually look at? So, by the end of this episode, I'm going to cover all of that and I just want to get your brains thinking about where the world is going. How do you think about AI proof businesses?
What does that even mean? And and and just get your gears turning on it. Because let's be honest, pretty much everyone has a little bit of anxiety around how to create an AI proof business right now. Even when you're speaking to incumbents, companies that have billions of dollars of revenue, they're kind of like, "Oh my god, you know, is, you know, big Frontier Lab going to come after me?" So today's episode is just going to be thinking about how you should be thinking about this. So this is for anyone who's interested in building a business 2027 and beyond. Let's go.
the start. Uh we'll start actually with you know Adam's businesses. So what do I mean by Adams? You have pixel businesses, the software businesses and then you have Adams. These are physical businesses. Um and when you think about a physical business, you know, coffee shop, uh you know, you got to come in, people want coffee or you know, a plumber. um you know, your toilet gets clogged, AI is not going to be able to fix that leak. Uh these are the sorts of businesses that aren't going anywhere. And you can actually make the argument that these businesses valuations are going to go up uh from here because you're going to have a lot of that AI tech money trying to get in here once they see uh the the moat and and and the opportunity. So, I think you're starting to see a little bit of that. Um there's just I don't know about you, I just see tons of content around boring businesses. Um people are trying to get into it.
Physical um you know it's harder to do physical businesses but uh there's you know those those physical businesses uh AI can't clone overnight. Uh the second is businesses that require some permission. What do I mean by that? I mean licenses. I mean regulation. Uh, and I also mean if you have the ability, you know, if you're likable or you have connections, uh, or you can, you know, use Grockbot or whatever to actually get you in front of the right people to go and create a deal with a larger company to help and they help sell your product. That is a partnership that can't be copied uh, on day one. So, what do I mean by that? Maybe you have um an agency and you partner with Salesforce and you're one of their preferred vendors or you're you know preferred vendor of Microsoft or it doesn't even need to be that big just a preferred vendor of a medium-sized company. Um ideally a largeiz company
but a medium to largesiz company that is something that people can clone licenses. What do I mean by that? I mean that there's some businesses that you need a license to operate. Uh there's some businesses that are regulated and you not everyone could go and do that. You know what's an example? You know, if you want to own I think like a bookkeeping firm like you have to in some countries have been educated a certain way. If you want to be if you want to own a law firm in some countries you actually have to be a lawyer. So maybe you partner with a lawyer um and you handle the marketing and growth side and the AI side and they handle running the law firm. These are the sorts of things to help you know I'm just trying to get your creative juices this entire episode flowing so that you can start thinking about okay what if I am going to start a new business how do I make it as AI proof as possible. Attention um
somehow attention is underrated right now. people follow people. Um, and in a world where AI exists, you know, if you have the right systems there, they can make your organic content, uh, like you can go and create more organic content. I was one of those people that, you know, hated short form video. I mean, I like to consume it, but I hated it from like a creation standpoint. I never liked doing it. I hated the editing around it. Now I have Opus 5.5 as my editor. Um, and I can go and create Shore Form on the fly when it works for me in my schedule. Um, and I've actually been quite enjoying it.
Um, and just over the last like week, I've gotten like literally hundreds of thousands of views on that content. Um, which is which is really cool. Um, and people saying it it's valuable. So there is literally no excuse to uh in in in 2026 2027 to create um a machine that is creating media. And I believe that media is somehow underrated right now. I'm talking about newsletters. I'm talking about, you know, meme pages. I'm talking about, you know, founderled content. Um we all know that distribution is king. And uh you know, I'm not talking about just creating one page. I'm talking about creating a media company and I think that those businesses are going to do tremendous over uh the next few years and to a certain extent they're somewhat AI proof. Um, you know, [clears throat] of course, uh, there's some versions of, uh, of media that, you know, could be replaceable, but the idea is if you're
going to create, if if your goal is to create a good media company, you know, you are, uh, trying to create an irreplaceable, trustworthy brand that people come to for your niche. So, I think the way to think about attention is what is your micro niche? What is your niche? How do you create a a machine around it? Um, you know, how do you how do you use AI to amplify uh you? And you don't necessarily need to be the face um you know, necessarily need to do founder content, but it does help when you have a human being in front doing it. Um, the next is timing.
So, timing, what did I mean by this? I just basically mean that you're seeing more and more trends for different micro niches and niche niches now uh than ever. And I think that there's an opportunity to use something like ideabrowser.com, use something like a Grockbot, use something like a Claude Duo, any personal agent platform that you know you want to use to go and monitor for trends in your niches um in your micro niches and go and build something as the first mover advantage. Sometimes I am shocked when you're early on a trend. How few people have actually gone and built something for these people. What what Okay, what am I talking about with building, you know, it could be a software product, it could be a physical product, it could be, you know, media company, it could be, you know, an atom here, an atoms here, a physical thing. Uh, we're going to talk about other things, too, like
marketplaces and and data and and stuff like that. It can be one of those. Um but the point I'm trying to make around trends is being a first mover advantage allows you to collect data to collect uh insights around a particular micro niche or niche and from that you know from that your your initial product might not be AI proof right it might not be an AI proof idea in fact it might be the least AI proof but what it is AI proof is the data and the brand and the people that you you know you end up collecting into this that trust that that you build that brand loyalty that you build and I think there's a ton of opportunity to go and look at trends and I think I just believe that you know everyone should be doing this everyone should be thinking about or not thinking everyone should be creating machines systems around finding trends acting on trends in and ones that they they you know believe that they can
add value to me this is a no-brainer belonging now more than ever you know you know people are as connected as ever, but they're feeling as disconnected than ever. People want to be with people, and there's tremendous opportunities to build AI proof businesses around that sense of belonging. That could be something like paid communities. That's something like a circle or a school or, you know, just a weekly virtual event where you're keeping people accountable. You know, when you think about belonging, you're thinking about uh a goal that this community has. and um shared interest that they have. So they want to uh let you know they want to hit that goal around that shared interest fast with someone else with that accountability uh having fun entertainment. So there's so many niches and microniches where there's an opportunity to charge people to help them go and do that. Um so that could be IRL, that could be, you know,
you can just do a full IRL experience. My friend Sam Par, you know, has his company Hampton which is um you know not affiliated but at all but um what they do is uh like you know from what I understand like meetups around North America for entrepreneurs sort of like AA for entrepreneurs uh that do at least let's say $3 million a year in revenue and I think that's really cool and that's like an un you know a really big you know opportunity. what is the Hampton for XYZ, right? Um, so you know what is that paid community that people would be willing to spend hundreds of dollars, thousands of dollars and and then you as the host are are helping them well you're helping curate the group and you're also helping them move along their journey. So uh virtual and uh and also IRL events, there's just so much opportunity in IRL events. Um we just threw an IRL event was it last week uh in Nashville bringing around you know
uh founders who are interested in deploying agents to build their business businesses and it was it you know there's just we had like so much demand we didn't we didn't really know even how to meet it. I think there's tons of demand for this sorts of thing sorts of things. The hard part for you is going to be thinking about what is the niche, what is the what is the goal, how can you actually produce a really good experience, and what is the price point that makes it a no-brainer. The next uh category is around liquidity. You know, I often hear uh people say, "Greg, software is done. Like, it's over. Don't even consider thinking about building anything in software." And you know, one example I always I always give to people is is marketplaces. you know, marketplaces. There's so much still opportunity to build marketplaces. Um, and what is a marketplace? Actually, before before I get into it, a
marketplace is just a fancy word of of uh for saying a place where there's supply and demand and you're connecting that supply and demand on this website, on this app. Um, a friend of mine launched a u a marketplace last week. I think it was it's called final lap.com and basically what it is is uh high I think like high-end collectible cars like every week you come to the site and you can bid bid on this like high-end collectible cars thing um and they curate the cars and there's like a lot of hype and around it and I think he has a big audience on Instagram so he uses his Instagram audience to market it um and it's just an example of like a little bit of a new mechanic um around car car uh car sales, collectibles um you know so there's that niche there um and all of a sudden there's a new marketplace uh for this sorts of thing and I think what's really cool about marketplaces is they are one of the most
sticky businesses of all time if you're able to get people you know get the attention and bring that attention into a marketplace place, uh, you've got a really good good business there. I mean, in the car space, we all know cars and bids sold for a ton of money, many millions of dollars. Um, there's so many examples of marketplaces that have gotten acquired for ridiculous amounts and ridiculous sums of money. Why? Because, again, we all know that it's it's it's so hard to go and create. Now I think there's an opportunity to go and actually find creators, find media companies and then build their marketplaces for them, partner with them or you know you end up just incubating the attention yourself and then you go and build the liquidity. Um so I think there's a lot of opportunity here a lot of unmet demand. Uh hard hard part here is about thinking about what is a new mechanic that doesn't exist uh
currently. What is a new niche or microniche that just it doesn't need to be new actually just what is an underserved niche or microniche um that is just screaming that they need uh they need a marketplace. Um so I like this one a lot. Also, what's cool about liquidity the marketplace and liquidity space here is you can go and use a Grockbot, a Claude Code, one of these personal agent platforms to go and actually run a lot of the tough parts of running a marketplace. So, what's it's just really cool that you know in the past running a marketplace was pretty intense from a management perspective.
Support tickets um just you have a lot of people and everything needs to be perfect. But with um with AI now and personal agents, we've gotten to the point where you actually don't really need a big team, you know, you can create, you know, a team of 1 2 3 four five people. Um and it it could support a marketplace that does many millions in GMV. Um so like this one a lot. Unique data. So uh you know this has gone viral of the last few months just you know you see data brokers making millions of dollars a week and um I'll just give a a highle just like what what is that what is that business the business is basically you on one on one hand and I maybe I'll do a whole breakdown on on a separate episode um if people are interested but basically you on one side uh you have unique data um around some something you know initially it was uh coding coding like uh a lot of these platforms like I think
Merore and um micro one and things like that they they needed um they were getting data coding data and they were selling it to um the big models. Now there's the the big models just are hungry for these new types of data that they don't have access to. So the game is what is what is that data and and then how can you sell it to them. That's basically the game. There's still a tremendous amount of opportunity there. Um and that's what I'd call a data rich business. Another datari business is actually if you have access to some amount of data that isn't easil easily accessible um you can go and have a curated directory of some sort um that people will pay for and I think you're going to see a just huge explosion of curated websites and apps over the next few years. Why do I think that in a world where LLMs uh basically have give you infinite content, social feeds basically give you infinite content, you're going to want
to go and access curated databases of content that you believe is high quality. I'll give you the example that comes to mind uh just like off the cuff. You know, Google reviews or or Yelp reviews or just reviews of restaurants in general have gotten to a place where I don't know if you've noticed this, it's either like five star reviews or one star reviews and then like the it's a three on five, right? Cuz you got some fives and ones or a four and five [snorts] and it's just very polarizing with reviews. And also, I think a lot of people have gamed the review se uh sections on places like Yelp and stuff.
So, um I think that, you know, for me, it would be really cool to pop into a website or an app and really give me new recommen uh restaurant recommendations from uh you know, that were actually high high quality reviews that weren't just like love it or hate it. Um yes, that's an example of a consumer business. consumer business have more risks, less likely to work. Um, but just I'm I'm using it as an example to share that like there's probably some reviews that are high quality. Um, and there's probably a way to like curate that into a database and someone might be willing to pay something to access that. Um, I think there's a ton of opportunity in enterprise. I think there's a ton of opportunity in proumer. I think there's a ton of opportunity um, in the SMB space. I think that there's some consumer opportunities uh as well. Um but overall the the game here is you know how do how do you create you know
because we're talking about AI proof startup startups what does that look like? How do you curate data that someone else can't get? And uh that's and then you either sell it uh as a website or app to people monthly or whatever um or you sell it to the labs or you do both. Lastly, I think you're um starting to see this, but it's like so early. Customers paying for results. So I believe that there's going to be more and more automated AI services. What do I mean by that? Basically where you have a bunch of agents going and doing the work um you know the example I've given past in the past on the pod is how do you create a creative agency that is fully automated um by different creative uh models. Um so it creates logos on the fly or landing pages on the fly. The unfair advantage that you can have is around context, is around data, um is around the system that you've created.
If you can create the best system for a particular output, then there's some amount of uh moat or some amount of defense that you can have against that. Now, in you know, the in the whole you know, if I was ranking these, I wouldn't put the outcomes one as like the best one. That's probably the least best. I think physical stuff, license and regulation stuff huge. Um, you know, I think I don't want to rank them all, but I would say at the bottom would probably be outcomes. Um, this is Oh, yeah. And I I'll end on this one here just to finish my thought here. Automated AI services.
I just feel like, you know, you don't see this very often and there's an opportunity. You know, the example I gave on the podcast before is like how do you look at platforms like Fiverr and Upwork, see what people want to pay for, and then create a essentially machine that goes and bids on some of this work. There's a ton of opportunity there. Um, and I think agents are going to fulfill a lot of that work. Um, the way to make it AI proof is if you have the best possible agents for and the way you make the best possible agents is if you feed them with the best possible data, the best possible insights, the best possible inspiration and you have something like we talked about around permission like you have a deal with a particular company that no one else can have and stuff like that. This is basically the map of how to think about a world where when AI makes software and content and answers pretty much free.
How do you build something with value? Is it the most is it everything in here? No. Um this is just some of the main ones, the main categories to get your creative juices flowing. Uh I think there's I'll end with I think there's a ton of opportunity. Um you do have to be creative. You do have to think about how many, you know, do you want to mix some of these? Do you want some attention stuff with some belonging stuff? Do you want some permission stuff with some liquidity stuff? Do you want some outcome stuff with some unique data? So, there is a bit of a mixing. It's not like you just go into one category and that's it. Um, but I do believe that I wouldn't look at the world and be like it's done and we can create startup ideas and we can create assets. Um, in fact, sometimes when the mo when there's the most amount of chaos creates the most amount of opportunity. Thank you for listening. Hope it's been helpful.
If you want more of this stuff in your feed, like, comment, and subscribe. Um, I'm here to get your creative juices flowing. Here to help you navigate this crazy world we live in, um, with ideas that could help you build a business. So, thank you for watching the Startup Ideas podcast and uh I'll see you next
Questions about this episode
Who speaks in "If You Want To Create Wealth In The Age of AI, Watch This"?
Greg Isenberg (Host).
What is "If You Want To Create Wealth In The Age of AI, Watch This" about?
In this episode, the hosts unpack what it means to build AI-proof businesses in a world saturated with automation, outlining concrete paths from enduring, non-automatable ventures (like physical services) to license- or regulation-driven opportunities and strategic partnerships. They guide listeners through thinking creatively about barriers to entry, the value of partnerships, and the…
What is mentioned in this Greg Isenberg episode?
24 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Greg Isenberg, The Startup Ideas Podcast, Cars & Bids, Late Checkout, Hampton, Opus 5.5. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.
How long is "If You Want To Create Wealth In The Age of AI, Watch This"?
The episode runs 22 min; the transcript is about 3,812 words in 25 timestamped sections.
More from Greg Isenberg
About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated November 5, 2026.