I used AI to reverse engineer how 12 billion-dollar companies got their first 1000 customers.

Here’s how to do it to find the opportunities in your market. (thread) Step 1: Find their origin story using AI

Most successful companies have completely rewritten their history. The polished story isn't the real story.

Use this prompt: "Find the earliest archived versions of [company name]'s website, press releases, and founder interviews from 2010-2015. What was their original positioning and first target market?"

AI can dig up old TechCrunch articles, Wayback Machine snapshots, and forgotten founder tweets that reveal the messy truth.

I use AI 365 days a year to run a multi-million dollar business.

These 5 rules will 10x the quality of your AI output:

(thread) Rule 1: Think autistic PhD student, not magic genie

AI is very smart but you need to be literal, detailed, and iterative.

Don't ask: "Help me with marketing"

Do ask: "Write 3 LinkedIn posts for entrepreneurs struggling with productivity. Each post needs a scroll-stopping first line, a brief story, and a soft CTA to download my time management guide."

Market research firms charge $30,000 for insights I get from ChatGPT in 30 minutes.

Here are the 7 prompts that turn AI into your $500/hour research analyst: Prompt 1: Blind Spot Analysis

"Analyze what [top 3 competitors] are NOT addressing in their marketing, product features, and customer communications. What problems do they ignore or downplay?"

This reveals opportunities they're leaving on the table.

If you have 60 minutes tonight, you can validate your business idea by tomorrow.

Here's the script: Most founders waste months building products nobody wants.

I used to do this too.

Built entire companies around assumptions. Lost millions on "great ideas" that failed in the market.

Then I learned to kill bad ideas in 60 minutes instead of 6 months.

Here's my exact validation script with the benchmarks that matter:

If 1,000 people won't pay you $100, you don't have a business. You have an expensive hobby with a logo.

Here's the $100,000 validation test that will spare you months of wasted effort: Forget audience. Forget aesthetics.

Start with one brutal equation:

1,000 × $100 = $100,000

That's your test.

Everyone should treat AI like a brilliant, autistic, PhD student. Most are still using it like a broken search engine.

They ask one surface-level question and expect magic.
Then they get garbage output and think AI is trash.

If I sold my company today, I'd start my next multi-million dollar business in 90 days using only AI. Here's how:

I'd create 5 AI specialists that work 24/7 for a fraction of what a single employee costs.
Here's precisely how I'd structure my AI dream team: THE ANALYST

I'd upload a detailed vision document explaining my business model
I'd have it identify emerging market opportunities with hard data
I'd ask: "Find the top 3 underserved problems in profitable industries"
I'd demand specific research on customer behavior and spending patterns
I'd make it spot trends competitors are missing

I co-founded Quest Nutrition with just $10,000. Five years later it was worth $1,000,000,000.

Here's the systematic testing framework that made it all possible. Most entrepreneurs waste months testing random ideas with no plan. I built a billion-dollar company by doing the exact opposite: I created a system I call the Test Stack Method.

Here's why most testing fails:

People test everything at once.

They have no hypothesis.
They don't know what success looks like.
And they quit after one failure.

I cut my $300K marketing team down to one person. Revenue went up 40%. Here's the AI system that made this possible.

An old-school marketing team is expensive and slow.

Not because the people aren't talented, they are.

But because every project requires constant back-and-forth.

"Tom, what's your take on this campaign?"
"Can you review this copy?"
"What stories should we use here?"
"How do we position this for your audience?"

👇 Even the best marketers need guidance to capture your voice and vision.

The solution? We built AI systems that give my team instant access to my knowledge.

Now my one marketing person works like they have my entire brain available 24/7.

Here are the 5 AI systems we built:

Unpopular opinion: Building an audience is now a waste of time.

I'm torching my YouTube revenue to prove this point and here's why.

There's now AI content where I'm asking "Is that an awkward person or AI?"

My prediction: In 2 years, roughly 90% of content posted daily will be AI-generated.

In that world, if people don't care who you are, you're done. My podcast revenue is at an all-time high while I completely upend YouTube.

Why? Because I believe lives are the only thing with a real future.

AI will create an avalanche of content.

People will build communities and live stream wherever they are.

Just like it seemed impossible people would record themselves everywhere - that's coming for live community building.

How AI accelerates this?

If my company burned to the ground tonight, I'd rebuild it in 90 days using only AI.
Here's exactly how:

I'd create a 5-member AI department that works 24/7 for a fraction of what a single employee costs.

Here's precisely how I'd structure it: THE RESEARCHER

• I'd upload a 50-75 page "lore document" explaining my vision
• I'd have it map competition, pricing benchmarks, and market gaps
• I'd ask: "Find the top 5 urgent problems in growing industries with supporting evidence"
• I'd demand specific data on market size, trends, and customer pain points
• I'd make it identify solutions people are hacking together inefficiently

7 AI tools that could’ve saved me $6,000,000 if I'd had them 3 years ago.

Here’s the exact AI tech stack my team and I use daily:

1. Custom GPTs (ChatGPT Plus)

Your personal PhD-level team for $20/month. (I use the Pro version for $200/month, but you can do pretty much the same thing with a Plus account.)

We upload 15+ hours of transcripts, create detailed instruction manuals, and assign specific Roles. One GPT scripts our content. Another handles research. A third manages operations.

Result: What took 12-20 hours now takes minutes.

(more in thread) 2. Castmagic

Turns any audio or video into perfect transcripts with speaker identification.

We upload audio files here and it assigns names to each speaker. Creates training data for our custom GPTs in minutes.

Quest Nutrition was my biggest exit.

Here's the unconventional playbook that built a billion-dollar company: Collide With Reality Fast

Don't spend months perfecting your idea. Get it out into the world immediately.

At Quest, we combined instinct with measured outcomes.

We created deliberate hypotheses, ran quick tests, and analyzed the results ruthlessly.

We lived by the data.

I used to be lazy, depressed and completely lost in life.

Fast forward to today, I’ve built 3 multi-million dollar companies and reached 1,000,000,000+ views on YouTube.

Here are 8 habits I wish I killed sooner: 1. Overthinking

Overthinking kills more dreams than failure ever will.

When you overthink:
• Your mind manufactures problems that don't exist
• Analysis paralysis keeps you stuck in place
• Opportunities pass you by while you "plan"

Action creates clarity that just “thinking” never will.

At one point in my 20s, I was laying in bed for 4 to 5 hours a day, every day. I was terrified of discovering that I wasn't capable of winning.

No money, no direction, no self-belief.

But then I had a single thought that changed my life.

Maybe I'm not permanently stuck. Maybe I'm temporarily stuck because I'm wrong about how humans work. The idea that I latched on to was brain plasticity.
That people can learn and get better at any age.

I focused on getting better. Just a little bit every day.

The compounding effects of that decision improve my life across every metric a thousandfold.

Here's how it works:

Most businesses burn money on ancient marketing tactics.

Here's what actually works in 2025: Consumers are more skeptical than ever.

A few years ago, you could get away with flashy funnels and clever copy.

But now, your customers crave authentic social proof & immediate value.

Here are some key strategies to get you there:

If your entire business depends on ONE person, you're a resignation away from disaster.

Here’s how to reduce your dependency on a key employee: Some warning signs of a Key Man Problem:

• Your clients only want to work with 1 specific person
• There's panic whenever they’re sick or on vacation
• Team members constantly defer decisions to them

These are dangerous flaws for ANY business to have.

This is @MGawdat

Former Chief Business Officer at Google X and best-selling author of “Scary Smart,” he’s one of the only people who truly understands AI.

I recently sat down with him for a conversation about the new God we’re building.

Here's his chilling warning about our future: @MGawdat Mo calculated that AI DOUBLES in power every 5.7-5.9 months, on average.

Two doublings yearly means 4X power in 12 months.

And that’s before we even factor in new breakthroughs like quantum computing.

Here’s the problem with such massive leaps:

In 5 years, we turned $10,000 into $1,000,000,000.

Here's what I learned from my Quest exit: Challenge Every Assumption

Especially the ones you're most certain about.

The century old industry best practices? Question it.
The decade old technology? Improve it.
The year old machinery? Challenge it.

Your best solution sits beyond "that would never work for us.

Our world order is going through the biggest transformation since WWII.

Here's what history reveals about Trump's strategy, China's rise, and what comes next: Every 125 - 150 years, the global system resets.

We’re in that moment now:

• Exploding debt
• Collapse of the old world order
• Domestic political chaos (left vs right)

Let’s look at the historical cycle:

Harsh truth:

Your old self needs to die to meet the demands of your dream life.

Here’s the framework that helped me reach my goals: First, understand that there are only two types of goals:

• Those that fit who you are
• Those that force who you must become

Most founders pick the first. Champions pick the second.

This brings me onto a core principle: