The Startup Ideas Podcast

I sit down with Kevin Rose for a live screen share where he walks me through “Nylon,” a personal Techmeme-style news engine he vibe-coded to track AI and tech stories. He breaks down how he pulls from RSS, enriches articles with tools like iFramely, Firecrawl, and Gemini, then generates TLDRs and vector embeddings to cluster stories with real nuance. We dig into his “gravity engine,” an editorial scoring system that ranks stories by impact, novelty, and builder relevance. The bigger theme is simple: with today’s models and workflows, a solo builder can ship wild, high-leverage software fast, then refine by cutting features down to the few that matter.

Timestamps:

00:00 – Intro And What Kevin Plans To Demo

03:10 – Techmeme Breakdown And How Signal Gets Ranked

06:44 – RSS Sources, Ingestion, And The Article Pipeline

11:23 – Winner Selection: RSS vs iFramely vs Firecrawl vs Gemini

13:01 – Why iFramely And Firecrawl, Explained

16:37 – TLDRs, Vector Embeddings, And Why They Beat Keyword Search

19:49 – Task Orchestration With trigger.dev And Retries

24:58 – Clusters: Expanding With Search APIs And Discovery

27:07 – The Gravity Engine: Editorial Scoring Rubric

31:31 – Product Management: Gut, Iteration, And Cutting Features

34:53 – Synthetic Audiences And Personal Software

37:03 – What “Success” Looks Like

43:52 – Retention Mechanics And The Idea Browser Example

47:19 – “Blurred Presence” Blog Project From A 12-Year-Old Idea

50:34 – This the best time to build

51:55 – How To Work With Kevin, DIGG Reboot, And VC Today

Keypoints

I watch Kevin’s end-to-end pipeline for turning messy RSS links into clean, enriched, clustered stories.

Kevin uses a “winner” judge to pick the best source of truth per field (summary, main content, metadata).

Vector embeddings plus clustering unlock meaning-level grouping that keyword search misses.

trigger.dev gives durable background jobs, retries, and observability for a solo builder workflow.

His “gravity engine” acts like an editorial layer that prioritizes novelty, impact, and builder relevance.

The #1 tool to find startup ideas/trends - https://www.ideabrowser.com

LCA helps Fortune 500s and fast-growing startups build their future - from Warner Music to Fortnite to Dropbox. We turn 'what if' into reality with AI, apps, and next-gen products https://latecheckout.agency/

The Vibe Marketer - Resources for people into vibe marketing/marketing with AI: https://www.thevibemarketer.com/

FIND ME ON SOCIAL

X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/gregisenberg

Instagram: https://instagram.com/gregisenberg/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gisenberg/

Kevin Rose: x: https://x.com/kevinrose

personal website: https://www.kevinrose.com/about

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@KevinRose

I sit down with Kitze to unpack how he uses Clawdbot as a personal OS that runs across Discord, Telegram, and other chat surfaces. We walk through his one-gateway setup, persona-based bots, and the way he structures channels and threads to manage customers, home logistics, and engineering work. We also dig into the self-learning angle: giving an agent shell and network access so it can discover devices, build dashboards, and automate workflows end to end. We close with a lightning round of concrete examples you can adapt across your own life and business.

Timestamps

00:00 – Intro

01:42 – The Personal OS Idea

04:20 – Persona Design for Clawdbot

06:00 – Discord As The Control Center

08:23 – Self-Learning Through Shell And Network Access

09:23 – Discord Threads And Agent Workflows

10:13 – Platform Choices: Telegram, Discord, Slack

11:47 – Email Automation, Security, And Model Selection

15:07 – How Agents Change Work

18:00 – Lightning Round of Clawdbot use cases

27:09 – Spellbook: Variable-Driven Prompt Templates

29:15 – Closing Thoughts

Key Points

I treat Clawdbot like a gateway that routes the same core agent into many persona shells for distinct jobs

I keep work organized via Discord sections, channels, and threads so agent output stays searchable

I lean on shell and network access to let the agent discover devices and ship automations that span apps, NAS, and smart home

I use stronger models for high-trust surfaces like email and credentials, and I scope access gradually

I prototype interfaces that turn prompts into parameterized forms so workflows stay reusable and fast

The #1 tool to find startup ideas/trends - https://www.ideabrowser.com

LCA helps Fortune 500s and fast-growing startups build their future - from Warner Music to Fortnite to Dropbox. We turn 'what if' into reality with AI, apps, and next-gen products https://latecheckout.agency/

The Vibe Marketer - Resources for people into vibe marketing/marketing with AI: https://www.thevibemarketer.com/

FIND ME ON SOCIAL

X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/gregisenberg

Instagram: https://instagram.com/gregisenberg/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gisenberg/

FIND KITZE ON SOCIAL

X/Twitter: https://x.com/thekitze

Tinkerer Club: https://tinkerer.club

Personal Website:  https://www.kitze.io

I sit down with Alex Finn to break down how he sets up Moltbot (formally Clawdbot) as a proactive AI employee he treats like a teammate named Henry. We walk through the core workflow: Henry sends a daily morning brief, researches while Alex sleeps, and ships work as pull requests for review. Alex explains the setup that makes this work; feeding the bot deep personal and business context, then setting clear expectations for proactive behavior. We cover model strategy (Opus as “brain,” Codex as “muscle”), a “Mission Control” task tracker Henry built, hardware options, and the security mindset around prompt injection and account access.

Timestamps

00:00 – Intro

02:08 – Clawdbot Overview

03:33 – The Morning Brief Workflow

05:01 - Proactive Builds: Trends → Features → Pull Requests

07:27 – The Setup: Context + Expectations For Proactivity

09:38 – The Onboarding Prompt Alex Uses

12:05 – Hunting “Unknown Unknowns” For Real Leverage

12:43 – Using the right Models for cost control

14:18 – Mission Control: A Kanban Tracker Henry Built

17:16 – The future of Human and AI workflow

22:01 – Hardware And Hosting: Cloud vs Local (Mac Mini/Studio)

25:47 – The Productivity Framework

27:10 – The Possible Evolution of Clawdbot

28:53 – Security and Privacy Concerns

33:38 – Closing Thoughts: Tinkering, Opportunity, And Next Steps

Key Points

I get the most leverage when I treat the agent like a proactive teammate with clear expectations and rich context.

Henry delivers compounding value by shipping work for review (pull requests) based on trend monitoring and conversation memory.

I separate “brain” and “muscle” by delegating heavy coding to Codex while using Opus for reasoning and direction.

I track autonomous work with a dedicated “Mission Control” board so progress stays visible over time.

I keep risk contained by controlling environment and account access, especially around email and prompt injection.

The #1 tool to find startup ideas/trends - https://www.ideabrowser.com

LCA helps Fortune 500s and fast-growing startups build their future - from Warner Music to Fortnite to Dropbox. We turn 'what if' into reality with AI, apps, and next-gen products https://latecheckout.agency/

The Vibe Marketer - Resources for people into vibe marketing/marketing with AI: https://www.thevibemarketer.com/

FIND ME ON SOCIAL

X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/gregisenberg

Instagram: https://instagram.com/gregisenberg/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gisenberg/

FIND ALEX ON SOCIAL

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@AlexFinnOfficial/videos

X/Twitter: https://x.com/AlexFinnX

Creator Buddy: https://www.creatorbuddy.io/

I sit down with Furqan Rydhan, a founding team member of Applovin and cofounder Founders Inc, as he walks me through Nebula, a Slack-like workspace where every channel holds an agent that can execute real work across the tools teams already use. We watch Nebula create and edit a Google Slides deck end-to-end, including generating an image and handling failures by retrying until it lands. Furqan shows how Nebula turns one-off work into repeatable “recipes” with scheduled triggers, like adding slides daily or publishing blog posts multiple times per day. We also talk about what “business-in-a-box” looks like in the AI era; where direction, taste, and quality loops become the edge as automation gets widely available.

Timestamps:

00:00 – Intro

01:51 –Building useful agents for real work

03:34 – Nebula: a Slack-like agent workspace

05:04 – Demo: Nebula creating a Deck with Google Slides

13:25 – The “business in a box” content dream (newsletters, affiliates, ads)

14:39 – Demo: Automate Blog Posting

15:52 – What stays valuable when everyone automates

21:23 – Agent workforce and Building quality loops

25:38 – Services and agencies: delivering work with fewer humans

28:53 – Final Thoughts

Key Points

I watch Nebula run like “cloud code for everything else,” automating real work across tools and workflows.

Agents turn one-time actions into repeatable systems via triggers and schedules.

The interface mirrors Slack because work already lives in channels, threads, and context.

Quality becomes the differentiator: critics, scoring, and iteration loops upgrade outputs over time.

Service businesses and agencies scale faster when agents handle production-heavy tasks

The #1 tool to find startup ideas/trends - https://www.ideabrowser.com

LCA helps Fortune 500s and fast-growing startups build their future - from Warner Music to Fortnite to Dropbox. We turn 'what if' into reality with AI, apps, and next-gen products https://latecheckout.agency/

The Vibe Marketer - Resources for people into vibe marketing/marketing with AI: https://www.thevibemarketer.com/

FIND ME ON SOCIAL

X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/gregisenberg

Instagram: https://instagram.com/gregisenberg/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gisenberg/

FIND FURQAN ON SOCIAL Furqan's

X: https://x.com/FurqanR

Fuqan’s personal website: https://furqan.com

Nebula: https://www.nebula.gg

In this episode, I sit down with Boris, the creator of Claude Code and one of the key builders behind Claude Cowork, to unpack what Cowork actually unlocks and how people use it in the real world. He walks through a hands-on demo where Cowork organizes files, extracts receipt data, builds a clean spreadsheet, and even drives the browser to create and share a Google Sheet. We go deep on how “agentic” work feels different when the model takes actions across your computer, your browser, and your tools. Then I shift into Boris’s viral workflow for Claude Code: parallel sessions, plan-first execution, Claude.md as a compounding team memory, and verification loops that dramatically improve output quality.

Timestamps:

00:00 – Intro

03:26 – Cowork Overview

05:51 – Demo: Folder Access + Renaming Receipts

08:23 – Demo: Turning Receipts Into A Spreadsheet

10:52 – Demo: Google Sheets + Chrome Control

15:52 – Demo: Emailing The Sheet + Parallel Tasking

22:07 – Best way to start/use with Cowork

24:22 – Where will AI and Agents Go Next

28:44 – Boris’s Claude Code Setup

41:12 – The “Claude” Pronunciation Discussion

Key Points

I use Cowork as a “doer,” not a chat: it touches files, browsers, and tools directly.

I think about productivity as parallelism: multiple tasks running while I steer outcomes.

I treat Claude.md as compounding memory: every mistake becomes a durable rule for the team.

I run plan-first workflows: once the plan is solid, execution gets dramatically cleaner.

I give Claude a way to verify output (browser/tests): verification drives quality.

The #1 tool to find startup ideas/trends - https://www.ideabrowser.com

LCA helps Fortune 500s and fast-growing startups build their future - from Warner Music to Fortnite to Dropbox. We turn 'what if' into reality with AI, apps, and next-gen products https://latecheckout.agency/

The Vibe Marketer - Resources for people into vibe marketing/marketing with AI: https://www.thevibemarketer.com/

FIND ME ON SOCIAL

X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/gregisenberg

Instagram: https://instagram.com/gregisenberg/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gisenberg/

FIND BORIS ON SOCIAL

X/Twitter: https://x.com/bcherny