I have been writing this weekly newsletter for 2 months now. hectic.

The time it has taken to get to where I am now with the startup.

It has been painful, frustrating, and often times, very uncertain.

This is Week 9 of The Unicorn Founder and I think we’re on to something…

Our first product, the AI cold-caller, will be put into action on Monday morning sharp… based on the performance there, well, then we’ll be in business baby.

This Week’s Update Overview:

• 😎 Nights & Weekends Week 2: Besides getting out our first “toy” I’ve been able to meet some insane people building tools I can use!

• 🔨 What We’ve Built So Far: From refining the website, to setting up the client dashboard, to getting stuck into top-performing cold-call scripts — there’s a lot.

• 📱 The Social Media Rampage: That’s what it feels like lol, posting pretty much every day, with a lot of insights you might enjoy.

• 🤝 The Thing I’m Most Excited For: Monday… Tuesday… and and and, those days represent the chance to test, prove, onboard, and become an actual business (i.e. generating revenue).

😎 Nights & Weekends Week 2:

I’m gonna let Buildspace speak for themselves on this point real quick:

The best part about this all is that I have been able to meet some INSANE people from all over this humungous — yet tiny — globe of an earth.

Some people making some music I’m dying to hear.

Some really cool guys building AI tech that I’m dyinggg to learn more about so we can put it into the startup.

And in general, just people that are bold, audacious, and literally just trying, that’s it. Nothing special about it at all.

Which really makes me think: the world rewards those that try.

And you often need a lot of humility and the ability to laugh at yourself to keep on trying over and over again — and how much better does life then become when we don’t take ourselves so seriously???

→ I feel pretty damn free.

So all of our “toys” are coming up… be warned, they are the first versions of the idea/startup/product whatever.

There is soooo much more coming, and so one positive is that if you like what is here so far, you’re gonna go crazy when you see what’s on the way.

🔨 What We’ve Built So Far:

Okayyyy, let’s go:

1. The Website

2. The Customer Dashboard

3. The AI Voice Caller

The Website

First up, we launched the website Sunday/Monday sometime around there with a lot of flaws, but I just needed to get that bad boy out there into the world.

From there I started adding & refining — which is still a work-in-progress.

Some things that got added:

Some good news is that there’s been a lot of interest in the software and so there’s over 10 agents/agencies keen to get started, with an additional 3 outreaches from London, Bangalore, and Hong Kong already! — crazy stuff!

The Customer Dashboard

Essentially, this is where all of our clients will find all of their data from the cold calls stored, such as all the info from the person, their preferences, what they’re wanting to do i.e. sell/rent/buy etc.

And, it’s where we will begin the rest of the automations in version 2.0 that integrate all of the data on the dashboard with the agent’s email and Whatsapp for a whole bunch of cool things.

The AI Voice Caller:

Okay okay… by far the most exciting thing left for last.

There are two videos out there of the AI calling me — which will be the best way to experience this part of the build — you pick which you platform you prefer to use, the video link is attached.

Instagram or TikTok (a bit shorter than the full call, just to show how it works).

YouTube (this one is a bit longer, letting the agent complete the call).

This is just the beginning of our callers… so there is a lot of refinement on the way, and as we test with more and more calls it’s just going to get better and better.

📱 The Social Media Rampage:

Posting pretty much every single day somewhere on the internet has really transformed a lot.

Like woah.

One thing I remember reading around 6 months ago was around the lines of:

“Build in public things that matter to you and the people that you’re looking for will find you.”

That couldn’t be truer than true with the last two weeks I have spent building in public on social media.

I’ve had people from all over the world, complete strangers and superrrr old friends all reach out and share things that they’re working on, ideas that they’ve got that they’d like to share, and a whole bunch of cool things.

PLUS: I am in a position where, because of the consistency of the posting, there is a point of “online trust” when connecting with others online.

→ i.e I don’t look like some rando just walking past someone’s profile and popping my head in and saying high — I am the neighbour next door also setting up shop on the same street (if you get what I’m saying).

There’s a law in economics under game theory which talks a lot about how this dynamic plays out:

→ People in close proximity to each other tend to act in mutual interests for the longterm benefit of both because of the repeated interaction that is inevitable of them being in close proximity, i.e. a relationship needs to be nurtured for a net positive outcome for both = “we win more when we win together.”

The Point: When you’re putting yourself out there consistently you’re showing the world that you’re here to stay and suddenly there is opportunity for collaboration/partnerships with others for longterm win/win situations because they see you have something to lose if you act maliciously.

So to come full circle, it’s been an amazing experience and taking not more than 30 mins a day to create content. (my rule)

🤝 The Thing I’m Most Excited For:

And lastly… “it’s only a business when it’s generating revenue.”

I don’t have a business yet.

I have an idea, a rough product, a website, and a bunch of yappa yappa yappa.

Monday that changes.

Monday (if God wills it) this all becomes a business generating revenue.

And from there… well, then it’s all on how much I want to generate and how fast we do that.

In the startup ecosystem they say getting the first paying customer is the most difficult, and then it takes even less time to get the second, then third and so forth.

I’m trusting that’s true lol.

We’ll see I guess.

Once that first client pays, things start to feel real, and suddenly it’s no more fun and games and you actually need to perform in order to give people the value they paid for.

Of which, I am thoroughly excited for.

Will keep you updated, of courseeeee. That’s it for today.

😌 Want to give honest feedback?

All you need to do is reply to this email to tell me your experience versus expectations.

I’ll see what I can do to improve either a) the experience or b) the expectations I am promoting.

Or just thank you for the really helpful feedback :))))

Did I miss anything? Hit that Reply button and let me know what you’d like to see.

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Want to connect? Here is my LinkedIn, IG, X (aka. Twitter), TikTok, and YouTube.

Ciao, see you next week!

Ethan