Will the first Trillionaire be a Solopreneur?
Will the first Trillionaire be a Solopreneur?
Examining how AI is reshaping wealth creation, business building and provides the ultimate path to financial success.
Imagine a world where businesses don't have towering skyscrapers, bustling teams of employees, or even a physical office. Welcome to the age of solopreneurs, where a single person armed with AI can run an entire business.
But can they do more than just compete in the market?
Could the first Trillionaire be a Solopreneur?
Some may scoff at the notion, convinced you’d need significant infrastructure in the form of human capital to generate that level of wealth.
After selling a ML-based security company to Facebook in 2018 I took a deep dive into revenue systems and other technology designed to improve business efficiency and help my family office grow as quickly and safely as possible.
What I have witnessed has me convinced: the old model of massive companies with different departments in different countries is coming to an end.
Here’s why → solopreneurship has an incredibly powerful blend of financial and operational advantages vs “Big Business”:
free cash flow in a low fixed cost environment
faster decision making + response time
We’ll begin by exploring how AI is transforming entrepreneurship and why it's such an exciting time for big thinkers with a commitment to massive coordinated actions.
We’ll end with a vision for what the first Trillionaire’s life looks like.
The Evolution of Entrepreneurship: From Traditional Businesses to Solopreneurs
Entrepreneurship has come a long way.
In the past, starting a business often meant investing in a physical store, hiring many employees, and navigating a ton of paperwork.
Now, a solopreneur – a solo entrepreneur – can begin a business with just a computer and a dream. What’s changed?
The answer: Technology, especially AI.
The Early Days: Networking with AI
Networking is all about making connections. In the old days, it meant attending events and shaking hands.
Now its all about maximizing your digital presence.
With that in particular, AI can help. Imagine a tool that introduces you to potential clients or partners, knowing exactly who would be the best fit for your business. AI can analyze vast amounts of data to find the perfect match, making the networking game faster and smarter.
Increasing our surface area online requires several motions (see list below) and they must ideally occur continuously and simultaneously— we will touch on specific tools in a moment, first let’s unpack each of them.
Content Generation: More content = more opportunity for engagement, connection and ultimately networking success. AI tools for social media leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies to automate content creation. With AI, creators can generate written content, images, or videos based on prompts.
Optimization: To win today you need more content and better content. Quality vs Quantity isn’t it anymore… it’s Quality to the POWER of Quantity. These tools can analyze data to optimize social media efforts, providing insights like the best time to post for peak engagement, suggesting topics, and refining audience targeting.
Content Enhancement: AI technology can polish existing content, ensuring brand communications are cohesive in style. I use ChatGPT to re-tone pieces several times, offering options that are more engaging to the audience.
Efficient Planning: AI tools can speed up the content ideation process, generating multiple topic ideas quickly. You can point ChatGPT to a specific X or LinkedIn user’s account and ask it to create 10 thread ideas.
Semi-automated Creation: AI can handle routine parts of content creation, allowing creators to focus on more complex aspects.
Faster Consumption: AI helps marketers consume information from various channels quickly, aiding in the development of timely ideas for social media posts.
To re-hit the point I made above:
To win today you need more content and better content.
Quality vs Quantity isn’t it anymore… it’s Quality to the POWER of Quantity.
Quality is your brand, it's what your audience should expect from you.
As you scale your content generation and distribution engines up... suddenly you have this same quality gaining surface area at faster and faster rates.
Post more.
Engage intensely.
Be an interesting voice in the chorus.
That's the path to victory.
Now let’s get tactical about expanding your online presence - every day hundreds of new AI tools designed to aid us in our networking are released, here are a few to review on your own time.
FeedHive
Website: FeedHive
Description: FeedHive is designed for content recycling and conditional posting. It features an AI Writing Assistant for automatic post generation, ensuring a consistent flow of content.
Vista Social
Website: Vista Social
Description: Vista Social is ideal for connecting multiple social media channels. It offers the ability to chat with anyone from any channel, enhancing networking capabilities.
Buffer
Website: Buffer
Description: Buffer is a tool for scheduling post campaigns. It helps entrepreneurs maintain a consistent posting schedule, ensuring their brand remains visible on social platforms.
Lately
Website: Lately
Description: Lately makes generating posts easy by recognizing context from larger content pieces and creating related social media posts. It also recommends the best posting times based on historical metrics.
Sprout Social
Website: Sprout Social
Description: Sprout Social is designed for community management on social platforms. Its automated technology helps users reply to fans, customers, or followers, streamlining interactions.
TweetHunter
Website: Tweet Hunter
Description: Schedule tweets, search by keywords, use AI to write tweets and much more. I use this one — here’s my scheduled posts for tomorrow:
Establishing a Brand and Expanding Networks Using AI Tools
Once we make connections, we need a strong brand that people can recognize.
AI can help here too.
It can analyze what designs or logos would appeal to your audience. Colors, fonts, spacing/placement… it all contributes to your audience’s perception of you.
Plus, AI tools can also suggest improvements to your website or social media profiles, ensuring your brand shines everywhere.
Building the Business: Digital Products
Many solopreneurs focus on digital products, like apps or online courses.
Why?
They're easier to distribute and manage.
They are also infinitely scalable.
You invest 12,000 hours learning 3 skills and fusing them together. Then you invest 200 hours researching product development, marketing and neuroscience. Then you invest 80 hours building something that solves a problem you know the pain of personally.
Side Note: if this sounds oddly specific, I am drawing from personal experience:
Now you can pour all of that investment into a digital product you are selling to business owners and executives.
A software tool you charge clients $875/month to use - it’s really useful to them + makes them feel safer about the future of their business.
People pay a lot to feel safe.
The best part?
All that investment now yields a never-ending harvest.
The same bundle of Python and Java code you labored for months to create can now be licensed to hundreds (even thousands) of companies.
1500 companies x $875 = $1,312,500
Every month.
$1,312,500 each month works out to an average of $42K per day.
Software also comes with another killer feature other than scalability: margin.
70 to 80% operating margin vs 16.63% average for the S&P 500.
I already own the best revenue monitoring tool on the market, so you’ll need to come up with your own idea.
…AI helps here too.
Identifying Gaps in the Market
Here's where it gets fun.
To create a product, we first need to find out what's missing in the market.
AI can analyze online conversations, reviews, and more to tell us what people are looking for. With this knowledge, solopreneurs can craft products that fit those needs perfectly.
Using AI to Refine and Launch Products
After you've got a product idea, AI helps refine it.
Through AI testing and feedback, solopreneurs can improve their products before they hit the market. And when it's time to launch? AI can assist in targeting ads to the right audience, ensuring a successful start.
Staying Ahead: Competitive Intelligence
Business is always about staying one step ahead. AI is a game-changer here. With it, solopreneurs can monitor market trends and see what competitors are doing. This way, they can adapt, innovate, and keep their edge.
This is a favorite of mine - this is how I use AI to gain insight on the market:
Data Mining: AI can sift through vast amounts of data to identify patterns, trends, and market insights.
Sentiment Analysis: Analyze customer feedback on competitors' products and services to determine strengths and weaknesses.
Predictive Analytics: Forecast competitors' future moves based on historical data and current market indicators.
Product Analysis: Use image recognition and analysis to study competitors' products and detect changes or innovations.
Automated Monitoring: Continuously track competitors' digital footprints (websites, social media) for real-time updates on their activities.
I have Google Alerts and other Python-based scraping tools CONSTANTLY searching for:
My name, my companies’ names, product names
Competitor names — even the names of Founders, Executives, Investors
Keywords proximal to my industries
Using Money to Make Money Sustainability: Ensuring Financial Success
Making money is one thing, but managing it wisely is another.
This is where financial management comes into play.
AI can help solopreneurs budget, invest, and forecast their finances. With AI's help, they can make smarter financial decisions, ensuring their business thrives in the long run.
We can use these tools to manage our portfolios of tradable assets, while we use different systems to monitor and add value to our private investments.
A Day in the Life of the World’s First Trillionaire
The journey of solopreneurs in today's AI-driven world is nothing short of exciting.
From networking to managing finances, AI is the powerful assistant every solopreneur needs.
With enough effort you can layer multiple AI systems into your personal and professional worlds. I use a Council of AI to navigate what our family office is working on.
As promised, let’s conclude with a vision for a Day in the Life World’s First Trillionaire:
The sun hasn’t risen yet, but in a sprawling penthouse in one of the world's most eco-efficient cities, the world's first trillionaire, Alex, is already awake. With the fluid grace of a practiced morning routine, Alex interacts with an almost invisible system in the home, manipulating lights, sounds, and even scents to create the perfect environment for the day ahead.
5:30 AM: Meditation and Physical Training
While many assume that Alex would have an entourage around at all times, they prefer solitude during the early hours. The dawn begins with a session of VR-enhanced meditation, an immersive experience that places Alex amidst the tranquility of nature, even though they're in the heart of a bustling metropolis.
Post-meditation, it's time for physical training. Alex’s personal AI assistant, Orion, generates a tailored exercise plan.
Today, it's a blend of high-intensity interval training and Tai Chi.
7:00 AM: The Global Pulse
As a solopreneur, Alex doesn't have a typical "team" but relies on an intricate network of AI tools.
Over breakfast, a minimalistic spread of bio-engineered foods optimized for health and taste, they glance through holographic screens that showcase the "pulse" of their investments. This isn’t just about numbers; it's a visualization of market sentiments, geopolitical changes, and even environmental shifts that might affect the businesses.
8:00 AM: Deep Dives and Decision Making
Despite overseeing thousands of companies, Alex dedicates time to deep dives into a few chosen businesses each day.
Today, an AI-driven educational startup in Africa has caught their attention.
Using mixed reality, Alex tours a prototype classroom in Kenya. They're not just a passive observer; they engage, ask questions, and even converse with the AI-replicated CEO for insights.
10:00 AM: Family Office Meetings
On the 78th floor of a serene building, Alex meets potential businesses vying for investment.
They don't need long pitches.
Advanced analytics tools provide snapshots – strengths, weaknesses, potential, and risks. One project, a biotech firm aiming to restore barren lands using genetically modified organisms, intrigues Alex. It's not just about profits; it's about creating a legacy.
12:00 PM: Lunch and Leisure
Alex believes in a balanced life.
Lunch isn’t just about sustenance. Today, they're joined by an AI philosopher, a program designed to ponder humanity's profound questions. Their discussions range from the ethics of wealth to the existential ramifications of singularity.
1:30 PM: Mentorship Hour
Our favorite (and only) trillionaire might be a solopreneur, but they believe in nurturing talent.
Every day, Alex dedicates an hour mentoring young entrepreneurs. With the help of AI translators, they engage with innovators from around the globe. Today, a young lady from Indonesia shares her vision for sustainable urban farming.
Using the waste heat from Bitcoin mining to accelerate yields in vertical farms built from recycled shipping containers? Interesting.
3:00 PM: Monitoring and Adjustments
Back in the penthouse, Alex reviews AI-generated reports. Adjustments are made in real-time, strategies tweaked, and decisions executed at the speed of thought.
A crisis in one of the AI-managed factories in Europe?
Orion has already taken proactive measures, rerouting resources and initiating PR responses.
5:00 PM: Personal Projects
With wealth and influence comes responsibility. Alex dedicates time to passion projects.
Currently, they're working on creating the world's first floating city – a response to rising sea levels.
They liaise with architects, marine biologists, and futurists, all brought together in a virtual collaborative space.
7:00 PM: Cultural Immersion
Evening is a time for the soul. Alex visits a virtual gallery showcasing indigenous art forms. Today, it’s an immersive experience of an ancient dance form from a remote Indian tribe.
These moments remind Alex of the diversity and beauty of the world they influence.
8:30 PM: Dinner and Reflection
Dinner is an intimate affair. Sometimes, it's with close friends or thinkers who challenge and inspire.
Tonight, Alex dines alone, reflecting on decisions made, the people they've influenced, and the path ahead.
10:00 PM: Winding Down
The day ends with a futuristic novel, read not on a tablet, but through an immersive storytelling experience where Alex is a character in the narrative, experiencing the world firsthand.
As the city's lights shimmer and the stars above twinkle in a pollution-free sky, the world's first trillionaire drifts into sleep, their dreams perhaps filled with new ideas to shape our collective future.
Goodnight everybody,
Alex
Matt McDonagh