How a $5B founder is using AI (3 tutorials)
About This Episode
Zapier co-founder Wade Foster shares his personal AI automation workflows, including daily briefings, automated CEO outreach, and a 'War Council' prompt system to stress-test decisions. The hosts discuss the future of AI-driven management and how software competition is shifting from utility to brand personality.
Episode Description
Show Notes
- 0:00intro
- 2:27The sales pitch 
- 7:04My Robot Executive Staff, Waking Up Like The President
- 14:13Evening brief
- 17:39AI that argues with you
- 19:32War Council skill
- 31:53How to use AI to hire better
- 48:15being a billionaire before 40
- 51:17a case for not having a chip on your shoulder
- 54:361-dimensional winners
- 1:00:55recommended reading
Links
Check Out Sam's Stuff
Check Out Shaan's Stuff
- Shaan's weekly email
- Visit
- Mercury - Shaan uses Mercury across all of his companies. you can too:
- Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided by Choice Financial Group, Column, N.A., Members FDIC
- I run all my newsletters on Beehiiv and you should too + we're giving away $10k to our favorite newsletter, check it out:
- beehiiv.com/mfm-challenge
Key Takeaways
Implement a 'War Council' of diverse AI personas (e.g., a ruthless CFO or wartime COO) to provide the critical, honest feedback that subordinates are often afraid to give.
Automate an 'evening brief' that scans meeting notes, to-dos, and emails to automatically draft follow-up messages while you sleep, potentially saving hours of administrative work.
Build 'deterministic' AI workflows that use structured code for logic and only use AI for specific reasoning tasks to ensure reliability and minimize token costs compared to pure 'agentic' models.
Business Ideas Mentioned
AI Hiring Pattern Auditor
AI & Automation
Personality-Branded Niche SaaS
SaaS