To me, the internet is the greatest invention in history for entrepreneurs.
Yes it has its downsides, but for those who aim to build companies, it created a new way to build (and greatly expanded the economy).
What is happening/going to happen with AI is the next great wave for builders.
Internet democratized distribution.
Social media democratized audience.
And now AI is democratizing capability.
If you’ve played around with these tools (beyond just Claude and GPT), then you’ll see the power it has for creating, executing, and optimizing. I’ve definitely been down some deep rabbit holes and popped up for air 4 hours later..especially with agents or the video creation tools.
And even better…I think a lot of the new entrepreneurs will start building companies in sports, media, & entertainment (as that’s what they’re passionate about).
Let’s Dive In 👇
What’s Actually Happening?
1. The Death of Content Scarcity
For the last two decades, media and content creation still fully required humans.
Now, AI does it instantly.
Yes, it still sucks at sounding like a human, doing the correct research, and connecting relevant dots…but with enough manual oversight, it drastically speeds up the process.
Supply of content will continue to explode (and therefore make competition infinite).
In sports, the shift is happening quickly:
AI can watch a full game and generate a highlight reel in seconds.
AI can write post-game recaps seconds after the final buzzer.
AI can create customized content for every fan.
✅ The winners: Those who leverage AI to increase output, rather than fight against it.
What Pressbox is doing across the space is worth watching.
*I think you’ll see that the next wave of iteration is AI-native companies selling their solutions + services to clients that don’t have the time/resoruces/skills to do it themselves.
2. The Death of Huge Engineering Teams
In 2020, when I sold my college sports media publication to AIR, I oversaw one of their media products and had to work with a team of 7 overseas engineers.
It was torture because the software engineers had all the power…and they knew it.
Anything we wanted to build had to go through them (and always took way longer than we wanted).
That power is finally shifting.
A one-person technical lead using AI can now write, debug, and optimize code faster than an entire in-house engineering team.
For entrepreneurs, this is great news:
Startups can launch custom software in days.
Companies won’t need massive engineering teams.
✅ The winners: Those who have great ideas and save money on development by using forward-deployed dev shops and use the extra budget on marketing/distribution.
*I’m not a technical founder, so I used Circulus to help build the Profluence mobile app, websites, internal workflows, etc. Best decision to date and saved a ton of money + they have sports domain expertise.
3. The Revision of Middlemen
As an entrepreneur, you get fed up with how much you end up paying middlemen for access to generic business information/knowledge.
CPAs
lawyers
consultants
sports agents
financial advisors
investment bankers
In theory, AI should help reduce these costs, but I don’t think these professions are going anywhere anytime soon.
People like the comfort of having a human there, it’s more trustworthy, and also you have someone to hold accountable (ie. place the blame on if things aren’t going well).
Even for me, I still like having all of those professional service providers, but I can get more out of them by using AI to help me ask better questions and vet their recommendations.
I also think AI still has a long way to go in terms of “taste”.
I’ve heard others say AI doesn’t have intuition either…I agree, but IT DOES HAVE data at a scale the human brain can’t even comprehend.
What Does This All Mean?
The reality is this…
1. If you’re a creator wanting to build companies:
You are now competing with AI-generated infinite content.
Solution: Become a curator, storyteller, and community-builder. We all know that AI can create infinite content, but it can’t build trust or authenticity (yet).
The opportunity is that you have distribution and can build/test out products much faster.
2. If you’re an entrepreneur with ideas:
You no longer need full technical skills or huge engineering teams to build products.
Solution: Hire forward-deployed engineers/dev shops and learn AI prompting + automation. Both will let you move 10x faster.
The opportunity is that you can spend less on product and more on marketing/distribution.
I say all of this today because…
The cost of trying to become an entrepreneur is collapsing, which means the number of people capable of building solutions becomes exponentially larger.
And I think that will push even more entrepreneurs into sports, media, and entertainment because it’s where their true passion lives.
This is bullish for us all!
Profluence Community Updates
📅 Upcoming Member Events
9/25: Q&A w/ Perch Founder (sold to Catapult)
10/2: Founders Fundraising
10/14: Community Networking
🔗 Members can RSVP for events here
🎙 Podcasts
Adam Sloustcher - Co-Chair, Fisher Phillips
Eyal Arad & Amos Varon - Ripple Analytics C-level team
Adam at Fisher Phillips talks about how startups should navigate employees + AI, then the Ripple Analytics team goes deep on fan engagement and how teams/leagues are navigating it.