Full Transcript
Noah Weisblat: Alrighty. So I'm here with Manny Larcher. Manny, tell me about yourself.
Manny Larcher: Hey, what's going on, Noah? I'm Manny Larcher. I have over a decade of experience working in the tech industry at the intersection of tech and marketing. I've been an employee, part of venture-backed teams, and have run a software company and a consulting agency. I've also worked in venture capital and as an angel investor. So, I've worn a few hats and I'm excited about where we're going.
Noah Weisblat: Awesome. So, Manny, we connected a couple of years ago when I was at a company called Klout Machine and you were still at JumpStart. What are you doing right now? Specifically with your talented background, what are you working on?
Manny Larcher: Prior to joining JumpStart, I was in year three of running a company called Collaborate and Elevate, now known as Colaeb. Essentially, Colaeb is a platform that connects businesses to new customers, capital, talent, and advertising solutions. When I joined JumpStart in the summer of 2022, Colaeb was already up and running with over 300 customers. We incubated Colaeb out of Stopwatch Creative, which was five years in business. I started Stopwatch in 2017. JumpStart had just raised a $50 million fund, and I worked until that fund was depleted. I left in February of this year to shift my focus back to Stopwatch and Colaeb.
Noah Weisblat: I'm working on a newsletter here, and we've talked about the AI space—the latest in AI, how people are using it. I interview people who are very good at what they do and who also use AI in their daily workflows. Let's start with an overview. What's your general take on the AI space, and then we can get into how you're using it?
Manny Larcher: I think it's a great space to follow. It's something that I've been using, even going back to having a chatbot. I've been an early adopter in terms of efficiency and how it can help our customers. Today, I've invested in companies that have built on ChatGPT that are doing well, like Taja.ai in Columbus, Ohio. Also, in our internal business, we're using it to improve efficiency and our customer experience.
Noah Weisblat: Cool. Which tools would you say you're using the most?
Manny Larcher: I would say ChatGPT is up there. Obviously, there are a lot of other ones. Taja, in terms of content editing, I think it's a great tool. Those are a few that I'm paying for.
Noah Weisblat: Nice. So how are you using it with Colaeb in your daily workflows? Have you replaced any specific workflows with AI, or can you give me an idea of how you use it in your day-to-day professional life?
Manny Larcher: Yes. In terms of running a marketing business, using a tool like Taja.ai, if we do a long-form video like this, I can record and download the video, then take that raw MP4 file—which might be over 20 minutes—upload that into Taja, and it will then spit out anywhere from five to ten short clips that I can use and share across all social channels. That's one use case. I can now look at my data from last month. For example, in July, I posted more. I can now look at what that posting led to: more engagement, more followers, more customers, and more transactions. So when I look at content, the ability to speed up content is an incredible and important tool that saves me and my team time.
Noah Weisblat: Very cool. I use a tool called Descript AI to do something similar, but maybe not as advanced. So I definitely need to check out Taja. That's awesome. When we look at the AI space in general, a lot of people are using ChatGPT like yourself, while others are taking advantage of tools like Taja or anything else out there. How do you view what I call the "Nvidia 5"—the rest of the space? What are you hearing about them: Grok, Gemini, Perplexity, and others?
Manny Larcher: I think they're all great use cases. I'm taking courses to learn more about Nvidia. I'm not giving investment advice, but a lot of it is about using that knowledge. These are all public companies that you can invest in. If you're listening and you're not building your own GPU chips, you can't participate there, but you can build on their platforms, which is a way to participate. You can also participate by using apps like Coinbase and Robinhood. I think that's how it is. Look at the stock market. Look at where the world is going. It's up to any technologist to stay ahead and follow what the leaders are doing. Even if it's just semiconductor companies in general, I think it's important to pay attention to what ARM, TSMC, and the rest of them are doing.
Noah Weisblat: Absolutely. So, you talked about angel investing. There are a lot of startups right now—and there will be a lot more over the next few years—that are trying to leverage the AI boom and turn their business into the next $200 million or $3 billion exit to one of these AI giants. How do you evaluate companies? First, do you use AI in your evaluation of companies? And second, how do you evaluate AI companies in general?
Manny Larcher: That's a great question. For anyone listening, I should first say that at Colaeb, we do have an accelerator. Anyone can go to colaeb.com. We have an accelerator with no equity, and it's free. There are a lot of great accelerators out there, like Y Combinator, Antler, and Techstars, where I was a former mentor. But we just want to meet people where they are. You have to consider how many people apply to those programs and don't get in. I think there's a huge need to just help companies grow. So, I encourage anyone to go to our site and apply. Applications are due on 8/24.
Back to your question: I encourage any founder to do this before they get on a call with a VC. Copy your website and do a simple prompt in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, or whatever you're using. Say, "Evaluate and paste your company from a venture capital perspective." The answer is unequivocally yes, I use AI to evaluate companies. Most likely, a lot of what VCs will say will be prepared for by using AI.
Remind me of the second part of the question.
Noah Weisblat: The second part of the question was, how do you evaluate the companies themselves? There are so many in the AI space. You kind of answered that with the advice to paste your company into an AI to get a VC's perspective. But what would you tell a founder? When you look at ten AI companies, what are some differentiators that stand out?
Manny Larcher: Traction is the only thing that matters. Your ability to get customers, listen to them, and build a product is how you're evaluated. What sets Taja apart is its traction. They launched maybe two years ago and have over 5,000 customers with a team of fewer than five people. Traction sets everything apart. As a founder, your ability to listen to your customers, build a product they like, and get satisfaction out of it will take care of everything else.
Noah Weisblat: Interesting. What's your advice to someone just getting into college or someone who just graduated and is looking for a job or to start their own company? How can they use AI to leverage themselves or what they're working on?
Manny Larcher: I would say to just start and stop trying to be perfect. The fear of perfectionism is the only reason people don't get started. I'm very far removed from that feeling. People are worried about what others are going to say. They're worried about what will happen if they post something, what they should charge for a product, or if they'll offend someone for asking for a certain price. So, get rid of perfectionism and defeat the fear. We're all trying. At the end of the day, people are busy. At the core of it, develop a product or service that makes people happy after they pay you. If you do that, everything will probably work out.
Noah Weisblat: I was talking to somebody the other day about software bubbles, and they compared the AI boom to the NFT bubble and crypto. Crypto is still doing some good things, but it was a bubble in some capacity. What would you say to someone who believes that AI is helpful but is a bubble? That it won't change work as much as we think it will and won't do all that much in the grand scheme of things?
Manny Larcher: I wouldn't agree with that. It depends on who it's coming from. I think it's time to learn a new skill set. Before AI, nine out of ten small businesses failed. A small percentage of them even made it to year two, an even smaller percentage to year three, and many didn't see year ten. The reality of being an entrepreneur was tough before all of this. I actually think this is a tool that makes entrepreneurship easier. We need to stop complaining and start working and executing. The founders who execute will be the ones we know about. We look up to them because they executed, not because they said, "Oh, this revolution might just be a bubble."
Noah Weisblat: Looking at specific industries, you're in venture capital and marketing with Colaeb. What industry do you think will see a huge change in the coming years with AI? Obviously, a lot of industries will be affected positively, but is there one that you can think of that will be completely turned on its head in the next six years?
Manny Larcher: That's a good question. I think that, for me, running a company over the last ten years hasn't been easy. For example, Stopwatch started in 2017. In June, our eighth year passed, and my co-founder and I didn't even celebrate it together. We didn't text each other congratulations. We were very productive, and June was one of the more productive months of my career. As an entrepreneur, you're juggling a lot, so it's not easy. For three years, I had an analyst position at a $20 million fund, and I had limited hours to run my company. It hasn't been easy to get to this position, even with investments. Investments fail. I think there have been a lot of easy and comfortable salaries in many companies. There's been a comfort and a lack of need to deliver. The job is basically to land the job, and once you're there, you're comfortable. That's what's about to be displaced. If you work in a warehouse, a manufacturing facility, or a power plant, they're able to see what you do per hour. You're already seeing this now with developers and monitoring keystrokes. I'm not an advocate for these things, but that's the unfortunate side effect. It's easier to judge how productive you are. The flip side is that if you're talented, you can get paid like an NBA player. I think that's what's happening. The input and output are historic. So, I'm pretty positive overall. I think it's a great time, and there are a lot of opportunities. I'm excited for the future.
Noah Weisblat: Awesome. If 2022 Manny was 100% efficient, how would you compare that to 2025 Manny in terms of efficiency levels? Are you two to three times more productive, or ten times more efficient, just with the use of AI tools at your disposal?
Manny Larcher: Ten thousand times more, you know? That's probably the truth. I think I'm 50 times more efficient. Yeah, that's not bad.
Noah Weisblat: Definitely. All right, I have two more questions for you. First, do you use AI in any personal projects? Like, before a date, are you asking GPT what to wear?
Manny Larcher: Yeah, I've done that in the past, and it's kind of scary. The more it knows about you, the better it responds. Because I have a lot of content online, it can respond pretty well. The problem is I don't want to get accustomed to asking it for everything, like what to wear.
Noah Weisblat: Okay. Where do you see the AI space in five to ten years? You've touched on it a little with startups and how they can grow their companies, but in general, where do you see the space in five to ten years? Do you see AI agents running 20% of current jobs?
Manny Larcher: I don't even think like that. I think about what you can do in the next six to twelve months. It could look completely different in that time. So that's why I'm more focused on being productive in the short term. You're talking about five years from now, and if you're investing, that's a different conversation. I'm investing in those companies, or trying to see how I can apply AI to my business endeavors. I think you should focus on the short term. What can you do to make the most of your 24 hours? Start there. The reality is most businesses will look completely different, many of them will fail, and in five or ten years, everything can look completely different.
Noah Weisblat: That's true. All right, last question. Is there anything we missed? Feel free to plug anything. How can founders get in contact with you? How can they join your accelerator? The space is yours.
Manny Larcher: I appreciate this, Noah. You can add me on LinkedIn or Instagram. My handle is Manny Larcher. You can go to colaeb.com to learn more about what we do. You can also join the accelerator from the website. That's the best way to reach out; our contact info is on the website.
In terms of missing anything, I think you should just execute and not overthink. If there was ever a time to not overthink, this might be it.
Noah Weisblat: You're right. That was awesome. Thanks for your time.