Startup Stories - Mixergy - Podcasts

#2307 Eric Ries: Why Anthropic Won and How To Build...

Startup Stories - Mixergy ·

2026/05/30

Eric Ries, who helped so many entrepreneurs build phenomenally successful businesses based on his Lean Startup philosophy, is back with a new book called Incorruptible. The book explains why some companies succeed over the long term, while others wither. I asked him to tell us the stories of the AI companies he’s worked with and studied, and talk about how he used AI help him research his book.Eric Ries is the entrepreneur and author behind The Lean Startup, one of the most influential

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#2306 Polsia: AI Agent + Zero Employees = $10M Run Rate

Startup Stories - Mixergy ·

2026/05/27

The zero-human company with the $10 million run rate has a lot of skeptics online. I collected all the skeptics’ challenges and asked the founder about each one. This is my explosive second interview with Ben Cera, founder of Polsia, the company that will build you an AI-run company. Ben Cera is the founder of Polsia, an AI platform that helps users launch businesses and software products using autonomous agents. Before Polsia, Ben built and sold startups in the creator and consumer internet space,

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#2305 I earned $500k when AI replaced my managers

Startup Stories - Mixergy ·

2026/05/14

Chandler Bolt realized that much of what his sales managers did at Selfpublishing.com can be done better by good AI. Within a month, he built a first version with spiked sales. Now he’s replacing all his managers. This is his guide to doing it well.Chandler Bolt is the founder and CEO of SelfPublishing.com, an education company that helps entrepreneurs and experts write, publish, and market books. Over the past decade, the company has helped publish more than 7,000 books and grown into an

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#2304 “I make $4.5 million implementing AI”

Startup Stories - Mixergy ·

2026/04/23

I first heard about this guy on the Joe Rogan show. He built a hot business on a simple concept: Companies hire him to embed AI usage and thinking in their businesses. Now he’s creating his own agent software (a customized version of NeoClaw) that he’s installing in companies.Best of all: Jon Cheney says what he built at GenAIPI can be built by people listening to this episode. We break down how. Jon Cheney is the founder of GenAIPI (General AI Proficiency Institute), an AI consulting and

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#2303 Convos: Instant OpenClaw on your phone

Startup Stories - Mixergy ·

2026/04/20

On X, Shane Mac showed how he created an OpenClaw agent and asked it to copy an app. In this interview, he showed how his app Convos, does it. This interview is more visual than our usual ones, so you should head over to our YouTube channel for builders to see it. Shane Mac is the founder of XMTP, the protocol behind Convos, a chat app that allows users to launch and interact with AI agents like OpenClaw and Hermes on their phones. He is building tools that make agents more personal, more mobile,

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#2302 Superpowering Claude with 10,000 apps

Startup Stories - Mixergy ·

2026/04/07

Zapier just announced a new way for founders to integrate all their favorite apps with their favorite AI model. Wade Foster, their co-founder, came on to show what we can build with it.Wade Foster is the co-founder and CEO of Zapier, the automation platform that connects thousands of business apps and workflows. In this interview, he shares how he is using Zapier’s SDK and coding agents to automate parts of his own CEO role, from customer outreach and meeting prep to hiring review and daily

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#2301 How Nat Eliason’s OpenClaw earned $177,417

Startup Stories - Mixergy ·

2026/03/27

When OpenClaw was released, I watched Nat Eliason create an agent, give it an X account and tell it to earn money. This is the story of how it worked and how you can build an AI agent as your co-founder or employee.Nat Eliason is the operator behind Felix, an autonomous OpenClaw agent business that has generated nearly $200,000 in about two months through products, services, and agent-focused software. He is also building tools like Claw Mart, Sodex, and Agent Letters to support the growing

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#2300 Revenue jumped when he sold to AI agents

Startup Stories - Mixergy ·

2026/03/11

There are loads of apps that post to social media. So how did Nevo David get Postiz to take off? He started selling it to AI agentsNevo David is the founder of Postiz, an open-source social media scheduling platform designed for automation and AI-driven workflows. By leaning into open source, building tools for agents like OpenClaw, and simplifying integrations through a CLI interface, Nevo turned a crowded product category into a fast-growing bootstrapped SaaS. Today Postiz generates over $45K in

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#2299 Zapier is using AI to sell to AI

Startup Stories - Mixergy ·

2026/03/09

In private conversations, I’m hearing a lot of founders describe how they’re starting to sell to AI agents, like OpenClaw’s. Zapier has more traction doing that than anyone else I met. So, in my monthly podcast with Zapier’s founder, Wade Foster, I asked him to show me how they’re doing it. Wade Foster is the co-founder and CEO of Zapier, the automation platform used by hundreds of thousands of businesses to connect over 8,000 apps. Since launching in 2011, Zapier has grown into a

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#2298 This AI generates $689K

Startup Stories - Mixergy ·

2026/03/02

Ben Cera used AI coding agents to build a company that generates $689K. The agent creates ads using AI-generated people, handles customer support, and even builds the product. This is the story of how he built Polsia and the future of business.Ben Cera is the founder of Polsia, an AI platform that autonomously builds and operates online businesses. A serial entrepreneur and former operator at CloudKitchens, Ben is now focused on creating AI-native companies where agents handle engineering,

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#2297 Elad Gil backed 40 unicorns. This is next

Startup Stories - Mixergy ·

2026/02/24

Elad Gil was an early investor in 40 unicorns, including major AI companies like Perplexity. I asked him what’s next for software companies now that AI can code better than humans, and what he’d invest in after AI.Elad Gil is the Founder & Investor at Gil Capital, his private investment firm. He has backed some of the most iconic technology companies of the past two decades, including Airbnb, Stripe, Coinbase, Instacart, OpenAI, and SpaceX. A former executive at Twitter and Google, Elad is

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#2296 The $7 Million Vibe Coded App

Startup Stories - Mixergy ·

2026/02/03

Josh Mohrer is the model of the kind of company that can be built with AI. He’s not a developer, but he vibe coded Wave AI into a $7 million / year note taking company. This is how he did it.Josh Mohrer is the founder of Wave AI, an AI-powered audio note-taking app that records, transcribes, and summarizes conversations across meetings, phone calls, and real-world settings. Before Wave AI, Josh was an early leader at Uber, where he served as New York General Manager during the company’s rapid

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#2295 Ryan Carson: How AI does my marketing for me

Startup Stories - Mixergy ·

2026/01/26

When a new user signs up, most companies add them to a standard drip campaign. Ryan Carson found a better alternative: his AI agent sends customized drip messages to every new registrant. It helps his company close more business. It’s just one way he uses AI to act as his VP of marketing. In this interview, he breaks down how he automated his marketing.Ryan Carson is a three-time founder and longtime SaaS entrepreneur. He’s currently the founder of Untangle, an AI-powered platform designed to

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#2294 He Claude Code: Build Me a YouTube Replacement

Startup Stories - Mixergy ·

2026/01/23

When YouTube kicked Pat Walls’ Starter Story channel off the platform, he spent a weekend getting Claude Code to build him a replacement. I wanted to see how it was done, so he walked me through it step-by-step. Turns out it was a mistake and he’s back on YouTube, but the site he made was so good that it’s his company’s new homebase. Pat Walls is the founder of Starter Story, a media and education company that helps entrepreneurs learn how real businesses get built. Starter Story generates over $2M

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#2293 $2 million / year AI engineering firm

Startup Stories - Mixergy ·

2026/01/12

My friend created an AI engineering firm and every time I see him, he tells me how much his business is growing. So I asked him to tell me all about it in this interview.This is the story of how Tarun Thummala created PressW, the Austin-based AI dev shop. Tarun Thummala is the founder and CEO of PressW, an AI engineering firm that builds custom automation systems for real businesses in regulated, document-heavy industries. Instead of selling generic “AI transformation,” Tarun focuses on delivering

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#2292 AI Automation that makes cold calls

Startup Stories - Mixergy ·

2026/01/08

Yevgeniy Matsay was a real estate broker who hated making cold calls. So he built an AI automation to do it for him.It worked so well that he created an agency that created cold calling automations for other brokers. Today he’s turning his automation service into Rozera, a cold calling SaaS for real estate brokers. Yevgeniy Matsay and Aidan Richards are the co-founders of Rezora, an AI-powered outbound calling platform built for real estate brokers. Yevgeniy is a former real estate agent with a

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#2291 He keeps launching AI businesses

Startup Stories - Mixergy ·

2025/12/30

Over a decade ago, Joe Apfelbaum was on the podcast, telling me how focusing on SEO helped him grow his agency. That was hard for the idea-a-minute founder. Now he’s back. And AI is enabling him to create more businesses. He broke down the 5 types of companies anyone could makeJoe Apfelbaum is the founder of Ajax Union, a digital marketing agency, and EvyAI, an AI-powered sales and social media assistant used by thousands of businesses worldwide. A longtime Mixergy guest, Joe previously grew Ajax

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#2290 He’s building an AI media empire

Startup Stories - Mixergy ·

2025/12/29

On the surface, it looks like Ricardo Vice Santos is selling AI-created books for your kids. But he’s aiming for something much bigger: a world where TV, movies, and every other media will be customized to you, using AI. He’s starting with children’s books because that’s what people will buy and what AI can do well today. This is the story of how he’s building DreamStories and how you can build a similar company. Ricardo is the founder of DreamStories, a company creating AI-powered,

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#2289 Building companies using Zapier’s AI automations

Startup Stories - Mixergy ·

2025/12/19

Zapier used to be the software that connected all your other software. But it’s AI has become so powerful that people are using it to build software companies.Founder Wade Foster joined me to talk about and show how they’re building on it. Wade Foster is the co-founder and CEO of Zapier, the automation platform used by over 350,000 customers to connect more than 8,000 apps. He started Zapier in 2011 with just $1.2M in seed funding and grew it into a profitable company generating hundreds of

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#2288 She had people do AI’s work

Startup Stories - Mixergy ·

2025/12/17

Helen Hastings wanted to create better accounting software. To figure out what to build, she had humans do the work. This is the story of how she created Quanta, the accounting software that’s taking on QuickBooks with a more modern human+software approach. Helen Hastings is the founder and CEO of Quanta, an AI-powered accounting platform built for modern software and services companies. Before Quanta, she was a software engineer at Affirm, where she specialized in building financial ledgers and

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