Behind the Craft

Sam is the co-founder of Granola, the AI meeting notes app now valued at $1.5B. Granola has helped me survive (and even enjoy) countless meetings, so I was excited to learn how Sam uses AI to show up prepared. We also talked about building an AI-native company without the 996 grind and what design means when agents skip your app entirely.

Sam and I talked about:

(00:00) The AI brief Sam now relies on before every new meeting
(01:27) “What did I miss?”: Granola’s most used recipe
(03:45) Why Granola hides the transcript despite user complaints
(09:37) A Granola recipe to get feedback from founders
(13:54) Why Sam feels a pang of sadness when agents skip your UI
(19:30) Why Sam’s Figma use fell to 20% and how Granola stops slop
(26:14) Nacho: The agent every Granola employee asks first
(30:58) Why most people stop improving their product way too early

Thanks to our sponsors:

Linear: The AI agent platform for modern teams https://linear.app/behind-the-craft
Riverside: All-in-one AI studio for podcasts and video https://creators.riverside.com/PeterYang

📌 Get the takeaways: https://creatoreconomy.so/p/how-to-use-ai-to-survive-meetings-sam-stephenson

Where to find Sam:

X: https://x.com/samstphenson
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephensonsam/

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Peng and Lauren are the lead designer and engineer for Grok Bot at SpaceXAI. In our interview, they showed me 14 bots that they use for work and life, from a design bot that helps Peng mock up designs to an entire team of engineering bots that help Lauren ship faster.

Peng, Lauren, and I talked about:

(00:00) The bots that the Grok Bot team actually uses
(01:23) Peng’s chief of staff bot buys supplies and lists gear
(06:31) Putting PM, design, and eng bots in the same room
(10:07) Turning a street photo into a diorama on Peng’s website
(14:16) How Lauren’s bots test their own work before merging
(17:59) Dr. Eggbot, Lauren’s bot that designs and audits your bots
(21:27) The assistant bot that booked Lauren’s multi-city trip
(25:22) Eng bots that sometimes land PRs before Lauren reads them
(38:59) How to trust your bots with more work, one skill at a time

Thanks to our sponsors:

Granola: AI meeting notes that don’t suck https://granola.ai/peter
Riverside: All-in-one AI studio for podcasts and video https://creators.riverside.com/PeterYang

📌 Get the takeaways: https://creatoreconomy.so/p/grok-bot-team-14-best-bots-peng-zheng-lauren-tan

Where to find Peng Zheng:

X: https://x.com/pengzheng_
Website: https://www.pengzhe.ng/

Where to find Lauren Tan:

X: https://x.com/poteto
Dr. Eggbot: https://x.ai/bot/marketplace/bots/dr-eggbot-v2

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Ethan is the product lead for ChatGPT Finances at OpenAI. He previously co-founded Digit, which helped more than 10 million people save over $9 billion. In our interview, he shared six practical ways to use ChatGPT to find wasted spending, save money on taxes, maximize credit card rewards, and model major financial decisions. I’m confident at least one of these use cases will save you money today.

Ethan and I talked about:
(00:00) ChatGPT Finances can save you money right now
(03:37) Use case 1: Cancel recurring subscriptions
(09:37) How ChatGPT protects your financial data
(18:03) Use case 2: Find tax savings proactively
(24:58) Use case 3: Cut ETF and mutual fund fees
(26:20) Use case 4: Maximize credit card rewards
(28:20) Use case 5: Model income and taking time off
(31:05) Use case 6: Decide whether to rent or buy
(34:00) How to set up recurring finance checks
(36:58) Shipping 47 product updates in one week

Thanks to our sponsors:

Wispr Flow: 4x faster than typing with your voice https://ref.wisprflow.ai/peteryang

Riverside: All-in-one AI studio for podcasts and video https://creators.riverside.com/PeterYang

Linear: The AI agent platform for modern teams https://linear.app/behind-the-craft

📌 Get the takeaways: https://creatoreconomy.so/p/how-to-save-money-now-with-chatgpt-finances-ethan-bloch

Where to find Ethan:

X: https://x.com/ebloch
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ebloch/
Website: https://ethanbloch.com/

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Pedro is widely respected as one of the most AI-pilled CEOs out there. His hot take is that “agents” is a terrible name. Instead, he showed me what you should build: AI employees that have a defined job, skills, manager, and budget. Pedro also did a live demo of how he still uses OpenClaw to stay on top of his $5B business.

Pedro and I talked about:

(00:00) Build AI employees, not AI agents
(05:23) Why Pedro spends half his time reviewing work
(12:32) Live demo: Jim, Brex’s AI recruiting employee
(21:24) Why Brex makes engineers build with AI in interviews
(22:33) CrabTrap: How to stop AI employees from leaking data
(27:30) The tokenmaxxing bill is coming. Here’s how to control it
(40:45) Live demo: Pedro’s OpenClaw system runs his life

Thanks to our sponsors:

Riverside: All-in-one AI studio for podcasts and video https://creators.riverside.com/PeterYang

Linear: The AI agent platform for modern teams https://linear.app/behind-the-craft

📌 Get the takeaways: https://creatoreconomy.so/p/stop-building-ai-agents-build-ai-employees-insead-pedro-franceschi-brex

Where to find Pedro:

X: https://x.com/pedroh96

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

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📌 Copy the AI system I use to run a one-person $1M+ business: https://www.behindthecraft.com
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Sue is the co-founder and CEO of Brilliant, an interactive learning platform with 10M+ learners. I asked her how AI can help kids learn without doing their thinking for them, and she played back a real session with Koji, Brilliant’s AI tutor. If you’re building AI products or raising kids, watch how it helps a student work through a mistake without handing over the answer.

We talked about:
(00:00) Why AI should make kids think harder
(01:34) Why test scores are down while grades are up
(09:41) Koji: An AI tutor that won’t give you the answer
(18:05) Why humans design lessons and AI builds them
(22:25) Primitives: The building blocks behind Brilliant’s AI
(29:30) Testing AI lessons with simulated students
(32:10) Measuring learning, not lesson completion
(34:39) Sue’s rule for competing with the big AI labs
(39:10) How to raise kids who enjoy doing hard things

Thanks to our sponsors:
Riverside: All-in-one AI studio for podcasts and video https://creators.riverside.com/PeterYang
Linear: The AI agent platform for modern teams https://linear.app/behind-the-craft
Wispr Flow: 4x faster than typing with your voice https://ref.wisprflow.ai/peteryang

Where to find Sue:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sue-khim-70b86014/
Brilliant: https://brilliant.org

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