The Most Overlooked $10K/mo AI Startup Anyone Can Start

Get the exact blueprint to from $0 to $25K+ MRR (Diagram Included): https://www.gregisenberg.com/startup-blueprint On this episode I present my three-phase approach to building an AI startup. Begin with a "leveraged agency" model, unlike traditional VC-backed startups, this method starts with manual service delivery to understand edge cases. Then implement AI agents to automate processes while maintaining pricing. And finally scale through multiple tiers and content distribution. This approach allows founders to be profitable from month one, retain equity, and build based on real customer pain points. Timestamps: 00:00 - Introduction to the leveraged agency approach 00:51 - Explanation of the three phases 06:24 - Finding an AI Startup Idea 07:06 - Timeline expectations for growth 09:13 - Building in public and content strategy 11:34 - AI Agent Systemization 12:24 - Pricing System 13:57 - Why this Approach Works Key Points: • Start with a manual service agency focused on one boring, painful task ($1K-$5K/month) • Transition to using AI agents to automate processes, doubling margins and scaling clients • Create multiple pricing tiers (enterprise, self-serve, API) to reach $5M ARR • Build an audience through daily content creation to drive customer acquisition 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/ Boringmarketing - Vibe Marketing for Companies: boringmarketing.com The Vibe Marketer - Join the Community and Learn: thevibemarketer.com Startup Empire - a membership for builders who want to build cash-flowing businesses https://www.skool.com/startupempire/about FIND ME ON SOCIAL X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/gregisenberg Instagram: https://instagram.com/gregisenberg/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gisenberg/

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Greg Isenberg?

  Today, we're going to talk about creating an AI startup. So I'm actually going to go through the process of how you can start with a relatively small, non-AI startup, doing $1,000 to $5,000 a month. You can build it to $5,000 to $25,000, and that you can eventually get to $5 million ARR with an AI startup. So basically, you start with a non-AI startup and you make it AI. Now, this isn't going to work for everyone, but if I want the highest probability of it working, this is how I'd build it, and this is actually how I'm building some of my businesses, and I wanted to share it with everyone here. So I'm not going to gatekeep. I'm going to talk a little about the whole process of how you can go and create an AI startup and how you can do it in a really cash-flowing way. So.

• 0:52Greg Isenberg?

  The first phase is manual labor. So when I say manual labor, I mean, you're going to start an agency doing one painful, boring task, and you're going to learn all the ins and outs of that particular boring task. Maybe that's Instagram management, maybe that's invoice processing, and you're going to sell it as a service. And through that process, you'll make something, hopefully, in the $1,000 to $5,000 a month range. Now, that's possible for most people, right? Because they are able to find a couple of clients and pay them a few hundred dollars a month. In that, you might hire people to fulfill the work, so you might get something like 40% margins, but you're going to learn every edge case.

• 1:36Greg Isenberg?

  That is the secret to actually building an AI startup, is understanding a very, very niche insight. So you're going to learn every edge case. Phase two is to build a system. So this is where you actually are going to use AI agents to do a lot of the work. And then you're going to try to double your margins. You're going to try to get from something like 40% to 80%, and try to handle 10x the amount of clients. Now, in doing this, you're adding enterprise value into the business, right? You're no longer a service business, and you're also no longer doing all the work, right? You're sort of replacing a lot of the human work with AI agents.

• 2:20Greg Isenberg?

  How you do that, you know, I've done tutorials in the past around Gumloop and Linde AI, N8N, and actually just, you know, Claude code to actually go and create these workflows. And then the third phase, and this is when you get to like the 25K a month phase, is when you have multiple tiers. And then you're trying to keep that margin and grow from there. So, okay Greg, this all sounds good to me, but how do I actually do that? Okay, so we're going to talk about that in this episode. The first step is you're going to want to find extremely boring pain. You can also use a tool like idea browser.com. This is something I built for myself to help figure out, you know, what are people saying on Reddit, Facebook groups?

• 3:05Greg Isenberg?

  It's a feature called community signals to find that boring pain. Or you can go and just try to find that boring pain yourself. Maybe you understand it by working this, doing this manual task. You're going to do the manual task for about three to six months. You're going to document all the edge cases and SOPs. And then, and this is the key part, is you're going to wire the AI agents to mirror the SOPs. You're going to keep the service pricing. So you're not going to actually increase the pricing once you've gone ahead and done this. And the reason why is the outcome is the same. Now, if you're, you know, just using an example, like you're managing Instagram posts. If you're able to create faceless Instagram posts at the same price, it doesn't matter if you have humans doing it.

• 3:51Greg Isenberg?

  All that matters is the outcome is good for the client. Over time, you're going to add tiers. You're going to add an enterprise that's going to be targeting something like Fortune 500s, Fortune 2000s, more expensive. You're going to create a self-serve. And then you're, you know, eventually could create an API giving access. And then, you know, very importantly, if you're, you know, if you're a follower of the channel on the Startup Ideas Podcast, you know that, you know, building an audience is extremely important to me, just because I know it works. So you're going to want to be publishing daily in a way that's entertaining. And then you're going to reinvest into agents and distribution. So you're going to obviously try to make better workflows. That's the agent part of it.

• 4:32Greg Isenberg?

  And the distribution part is you're going to want to try to scale your content 10x. And, you know, to me, you actually scale it, you know, from a content perspective. You know, you're going to want to create like cinematic. High quality content and then your barbell of, you know, very, very lo-fi, 10x lo-fi content. You're going to want to do both those from a content perspective and then you scale it profitably. Okay, so what do I mean when I mean, you know, boring tasks? You know, because I think a lot of people are asking like, what do I mean, what do I mean by

• 5:14Greg Isenberg?

  a boring, you know, paid pain point? Sam Altman, the co-founder of OpenAI, just said that it is the era of the idea guy and he is not wrong. I think that right now is an incredible time to be building a startup. And if you listen to this podcast, chances are you think so too. Now, I think that you can look at trends to basically figure out what are the startup ideas you should be building. So that's exactly why I built idea browser.com. Every single day, you're going to get a free startup idea in your inbox and it's all backed by high quality data trends. How we do it, people always ask, we use AI agents to go and search, what are people looking for?

• 5:57Greg Isenberg?

  And what are they screaming for in terms of products that you should be building? And then we hand it on a silver platter for you to go check out. We do have a few paid plans that, you know, take it to the next level, give you more ideas, give you more AI agents and more, almost like a chat GPT for ideas with it. But you can start for free idea browser.com. And if you're listening to this, I highly recommend it. These are soul crushing tasks. So these are, could be something like, you know, managing insurance forms, invoice processing, review responses, PDF to Salesforce. Like, that sounds so niche, but a lot of people are doing it. Customs paperwork. These are things that nobody wants to do and everyone needs it done. And

• 6:42Greg Isenberg?

  these are what's perfect for AI agents to actually go and do these tasks.

• 6:49Greg Isenberg?

  And what I call this, this approach, this approach to building businesses, I actually call it a leveraged agency because you're actually starting off by building an agency. You know, it's kind of counterintuitive because it's like, okay, great, I want to start an AI startup. Why am I starting an agency to start with? Well, you're starting with an agency to start with because you're learning about the pain points, you're profitable for month one, you build the PMF and you know, you own a lot of your equity and you can reinvest that, reinvest that into distribution and agents. I mean, the other option is you go and build a VC-backed startup, right? You know, what does that look like? Well, you're

• 7:32Greg Isenberg?

  burning hundreds of thousands of dollars a month, you find product market fit and you maybe succeed in five years. There's a small chance of exit. Now, I'm not, I don't want to tell people, don't start a VC-backed startup. I think that for some people, that's exactly what they should be doing. Heck, I've actually gone and done that multiple times. And I sold my last company to WeWork, which is literally the epitome of, you know, raising venture capital. I just think that, you know, by starting as a leveraged agency, by starting, doing these manual tasks, creating the agents, you can decide if you want to be a VC-backed leveraged agency, but this is just the best way to start. So you have leverage when you

• 8:13Greg Isenberg?

  want to raise, or if you just want to get those dividends to come. So, you know, what does this look like from a timeline perspective? So from month one to six, you're looking at, you know, basically doing everything yourself or with a few freelancers that can help fulfill what you're doing. So you're looking at, you know, five clients, maybe month seven to 12, you know, AI agents help 50 clients, and then you're doubling that margins. And then your goal is to get to year two, and you know, this is what I always say to people is if you can get to a full AI system where you have hundreds of clients at high margins, like that's obviously the holy grail. And as the LLMs get better, because I know people in the comments are saying, okay, but like, you know, no agent can actually

• 8:57Greg Isenberg?

  go and do XYZ task. Well,

• 9:01Greg Isenberg?

  Yes, they can some tasks, not everything, right? There's some like creative tasks, I don't think it's right, right, right now. But these LLMs are only getting better. So now is the time when you should be looking at building those businesses. So I think build in public is an important part of of actually building some of these businesses for two reasons. One is it's going to help you get customers, drive order mode. And then two, it's going to help you have a better insight to who the customer is. So you're going to be wanting to start an X account, Instagram account, whatever feels best for you. And where those, where your customer base is, you're going to solve one problem publicly. You're going to show the exact process. You're going to get to a point where a thousand people are going to see it.

• 9:45Greg Isenberg?

  A hundred people are going to say that 10 people are going to try it. Eight are going to succeed at using your product. Two are going to quit and then one is going to tell everyone. And if you can get nine people to pay $3,000 a month, let's say, then you can go and take and reinvest some of that money in content and then it goes and creates this really nice flywheel. Now, again, people are, I'm thinking about the comment section, you guys are in my head. People are always going to see this and be like, yeah, but how am I going to get a thousand people to see, to see this? And it's, and it's a good point, you know, it's not easy to create an audience. You have to look at, you know, what, you know, what, how do you come up with a really good account name? You know, we have this really good account name, for example, boring marketer.

• 10:30Greg Isenberg?

  It's just interesting, boring marketing, it's interesting, gets people, gets people to, to think of it. Or even the name of this podcast, the Startup Ideas Podcast. If you're into startup ideas, obviously you're going to potentially want to click and go into and watch and consume the content. So you need a good name, you need a good bio. If people are interested, I can do a whole episode, breaking down how I create audiences and how I create communities from those audiences.

• 11:00Greg Isenberg?

  But it's totally possible, assuming that you can come up with a good brand, a good name, and then you've figured out the format. And what do I mean by format? A format could be just a way of, it could be like long stories that you tell. It could be video content that's 60 seconds. It could be using a Handycam 90s camcorder that you're going and can, you know, recording content. Some format that is repeatable, that is scalable, that you can do over and over and hopefully post every single day.

• 11:35Greg Isenberg?

  So what's really cool about where we're at in this day and age is you're going to get to this point where your brain, and this is why this is a good business for a solo opener, you're going to be orchestrating a bunch of different agents. Once you get to the phase three of, let's go back up, once you get to phase three of this, of this business. And you're going to be orchestrating and managing a bunch of different Linde AI agents, GumLube agents, you're going to be creating Claude and Cursor custom workflows realistically at that point, and you're going to have Zapier connect everything.

• 12:17Greg Isenberg?

  And the cool part is you're going to have the output of a bunch of employees doing, you know, your business. And through this process, you're going to create this backend system. So you're going to be able to basically use that backend system to create multiple price points. And I talked a little about this in the beginning, you know, enterprise. What is enterprise? Well, that is the white glove service for your product, a self-serve. Just go ahead and log in and go and, you know, use the software. An API, you know, using the data to go and create, other people create products on top of your data.

• 12:58Greg Isenberg?

  You know, I'm putting these numbers here. You can see like 80 KMR, 50 KMR, 50 KMR. It just goes to show you that, you know, the numbers are possible. I'm not saying, again, I'm not saying everyone's gonna do it. Most people who are listening to this are probably not even go and create a startup. They're gonna listen to this and they're gonna be like, "That's cool," or "That's impossible. I don't think I can do that." But it's totally doable. It's happening every day. And the example I love giving the most is, you know, there's like this company right now. I think they're called Bank Statement Converter. The world's most trusted bank state converter.

• 13:39Greg Isenberg?

  Easily convert PDF bank statements from thousands of banks into a clean Excel format. And they're doing like $40,000 a month. It's crazy. It's like a simple Microsoft idea.

• 13:53Greg Isenberg?

  And then you can go and expand, right? Go expand your offering from there. So this type of business isn't for everyone. And I, you know, I think the reason why I think it's interesting is, you know, if you're thinking about starting a business, yes, you can go and do an AI revolution startup idea, but it's very sci-fi. You can do something like, "We process forms in 24 hours." And people are like, "I want, you know, take my money." You know, I think that boring startup ideas, like businesses need it. It doesn't take that long to create. You can create some of this stuff in a weekend, right? So I think that's the other beauty about this whole idea is, you can create this in a short amount of time.

• 14:36Greg Isenberg?

  And you don't need to be, you know, a Stanford graduate. You don't need to be a rocket scientist. You don't have, you know, work at Google. This is, you know, something that anyone can do if they put their mind to it. As long as they are consistent and actually go and put in the work, pick the right niche, and go from there.

• 14:59Greg Isenberg?

  A lot of people right now, you know, the market feels frothy a little bit in the AI world. I'm seeing tons of seed rounds being raised, tons of people hiring, building the future. And a lot of those businesses, you know, don't have a lot of revenue or, you know, have zero or not a lot of revenue. And there's, you know, nothing wrong with that, but I think that there's a really interesting, you know, world for people who want to pick these boring tasks, being boring, start by building an agency, automate a bunch of it, use content to drive customers and insights, you know, have, retain as much equity as possible, use those profits to dividend out, build other apps, build, you know, I call it being a multi-petron or owning multiple

• 15:42Greg Isenberg?

  businesses, I think is really interesting. And I think that right now is the time because these agents are finally getting to a point where, you know, you're, you know, the outcome is good, is quite good. So it's a really interesting thing, something I wanted to share with everyone here to get your creative juices flowing. I read every single comment that is posted, so I would love to see, you know, what you're thinking, if you like this sort of stuff, what other topics I should cover. I'll see you in there and I can't wait to see what you build. Have a creative day, friends. And I want to end this, actually, I want to end this episode by saying, these episodes

• 16:26Greg Isenberg?

  are for the people, you know. I, someone I know, very well-known entrepreneur hit me up and he's like, why do you create content about, you know, creating, you know, a $5,000 a month, $25,000 a month, like, agency workflow business? Like, build, like, do episodes on, you know, these big ideas, these really, really big ideas. He's like, you've raised venture capital, you've advised TikTok, you've advised Reddit, you can, you can, like, why are you wasting your time? And no, these are, these are for the people, like. This is sauce that I think that if you're able to, if this speaks to you and it seems fun to you,

• 17:09Greg Isenberg?

  this is the path that I would do if I was starting an AI agent startup. And it's actually the path that I am taking with some of my businesses. And I'll be sharing that more as that comes out. And yeah, hope you enjoy this and I'll see you on the internet.