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🎧️ The Playbook: How to build and sell AI startups
An exclusive interview with Hassan Bhatti, where he shares his learnings from exiting 2 AI startups
The AI Startup Playbook: 5 strategies this founder uses to build and sell 8-figure AI companies
Hassan Bhatti is a rare breed in the AI startup world - he's successfully built and sold not one, but two AI companies. In this episode, Hassan shares his journey and insights on finding opportunities, building products, and navigating exits in the rapidly evolving AI landscape.
In our conversation, we discuss:
How Hassan identified opportunities to build his companies
The process of building and validating AI products
Strategies for achieving product-market fit
The importance of timing in startup success
How to build effective go-to-market strategies for B2B AI startups
The process of selling AI startups and finding the right acquirers
5 Key frameworks for building successful AI companies
Predictions for the future of AI and developments Hassan is excited about
Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.
Key takeaways from the conversation:
Identifying startup opportunities:
Look for accelerating technology trends (e.g., AI, data privacy)
Assemble a diverse team with hustler, builder, and researcher personalities
Secure strong investors and early design customers
Building and validating products:
For deep tech projects, significant backend work may be needed before showcasing an MVP
For workflow products, a visual UI dashboard can be quickly created for customer feedback
Validate product-market fit by assessing customers' willingness to pay and allocate budget
Timing is crucial:
Entering a market too early can lead to challenges in customer adoption
Ideal timing is when companies have already allocated budgets for solving the problem
Balance between being early enough to capitalize on trends and late enough for market readiness
Go-to-market strategies for B2B AI startups:
Identify where potential customers spend their time (conferences, LinkedIn, newsletters)
Start with a large pool of potential design customers and narrow down through interactions
Focus on building strong distribution and go-to-market muscles
Selling AI startups:
Understand your company's position in terms of IP, market readiness, and revenue
Research potential acquirers' product roadmaps and identify alignment
Build relationships with product teams at potential acquiring companies
Key changes in building AI companies:
Recent advancements have made it easier and more cost-effective to build AI applications
Focus has shifted from infrastructure to UI/UX, go-to-market strategies, and workflow innovation
Smaller teams can now build significant companies with less funding
Future of AI:
AI will be embedded in every industry
Increased automation of repetitive tasks
Rise of powerful multi-agent systems and AI assistants
Great opportunities for AI-native individuals entering the workforce
Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.
In this episode we cover:
(00:28) Introduction of Hassan Bhatti
(01:14) Hassan’s background and journey
(02:01) Overview of AI startups
(03:37) Origins of the first company
(04:03) Deciding on the right opportunity
(05:47) Building the first product
(06:53) Validating product-market fit
(07:44) Lessons on timing in startups
(09:13) Importance of budget allocation
(10:54) Strength of go-to-market muscle
(12:38) Building effective B2B strategies
(14:41) Finding design customers
(16:27) Selling your startup
(20:26) Strategies for acquisition
(21:27) Frameworks for building AI companies
(24:45) Predictions for AI in the next year
See you next time,
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