Use AI Like a Co-Founder — Not Just a Toy
How to reclaim your time — with AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, or Grok.
AI isn’t just for tech bros building the next unicorn.
It’s for everyday humans trying to get out of email hell, organize their thoughts, or just finally finish that one task they’ve been avoiding for a week.
Recently on My First Million, they riffed on this with Howie Liu, the founder of Airtable — brainstorming AI tools that could be worth $10M or more.
But let’s be honest: most of us don’t need another app idea.
We need help making our current lives less chaotic.
So here’s the real gold:
How to actually use AI like a co-founder — even if you’re just trying to survive your Monday.
How to Actually Use AI Like a Co-Founder
These four steps aren’t just “productivity tips.”
They’re the foundation for making AI actually useful in your real, messy, brain-foggy life.
✅ Start with Your Bottlenecks
Before opening any tool, ask:
Where do I always get stuck?
Is it writing emails?
Is it summarizing meeting notes?
Is it researching new tools for your side hustle?
Is it just starting something that feels too big?
You don’t need to automate everything.
Just target the 1-2 things that drain your energy the most.
✅ Delegate to AI
Once you’ve found the bottleneck, ask:
“What would I hand off to an assistant if I had one?”
Now hand it off to AI.
Examples:
Tell Claude: “Write a thank-you email to a podcast guest in a casual, warm tone.”
Ask Grok: “What’s a quick breakdown of the latest AI news — written like I’m 12?”
Tell ChatGPT: “Turn these five random thoughts into a structured blog post.”
You’re not outsourcing your thinking.
You’re just skipping the grunt work.
✅ Keep Yourself in the Loop
AI is great at doing the first 80%. You’re responsible for the final 20%.
Think of it like cooking:
AI does the chopping, prepping, even plating
You’re still adding the flavor
Your role:
Edit for accuracy
Add nuance
Ensure it sounds like you (not like an overeager intern with access to Wikipedia)
✅ Build Tiny Systems
Most people think AI has to be a full app or workflow. Nope.
Even a single Notion doc + prompt combo can save you hours.
Examples:
A Notion page where you paste podcast links and ask GPT to summarize them
A Google Sheet where you drop LinkedIn names, and GPT drafts intros for each
A weekly template that Claude uses to write your Substack drafts
These are tiny AI systems. No code. No engineers.
Just you, your brain, and a tool that can help you think faster.
🔍 Today’s AI Term — Explained
Prompt Engineering
The process of crafting better questions or inputs so your AI tool gives you better results.
Think of it like:
Giving instructions to a very fast, very eager intern who will take everything literally.
Bad prompt: “Write a post about AI.”
Good prompt: “Write a friendly 5-line intro explaining what a Large Language Model is, using a kitchen analogy.”
The better your prompt, the better your output.
Final Take
Using AI like a co-founder doesn’t mean you’re building a company.
It means you’re building a better way to live and work.
You’re cutting through clutter. Thinking more clearly.
And reclaiming time — to do the stuff that actually matters.
No hype. No BS. No coding required.
See you in the AI-fueled future,
Ruben