Mar 8, 2024 · 26m · startup-ideas
I can't believe he gave away these GENIUS 3 AI startup ideas (watch this)
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Entrepreneurs Greg Isenberg and Eric Siu break down actionable startup opportunities across pay-for-performance agency frameworks, autonomous AI voice agents, gamification, and physical product arbitrage.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Greg holds 36% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Greg as informed peer 5.8 Guest teaching 3.9 Guest disagreement 0.8 Greg pushing back 1.6
speaking balance: gold is Greg, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 7:04 Value capture vs cost saving percentage reframing
Eric pushes back against Greg's suggestion of charging a percentage of cost savings, citing Jason Cohen to argue that charging directly for created value yields four to eight times more revenue.
Hardest push from Greg ▶ 0:55 Challenging the novelty of pay-for-performance agenciesGreg directly challenges the premise of the idea by asking whether pay-for-performance agencies have already been done before and why they represent a viable modern startup opportunity.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 23:38 Educating on agency EBITDA multiples and profit compoundingEric breaks down the financial reality of agency ownership, explaining how 5M EBITDA commands 15-20x multiples and delivers the financial equivalent of an exit every single year.
Greg holds their own ▶ 22:53 Framing niche executive communities as the unbundling of YPOGreg synthesizes the discussion around Hampton, Chief, and Benwise into a clear strategic framework, demonstrating deep market insight into low-capex vertical communities.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Greg as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Greg pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Building High-Margin Pay-for-Performance Agencies | 5 | 4 | 1 | 2 | Greg questions the novelty of pay-for-performance agencies before adding insight on how modern AI data enables better underwriting. Eric explains high-margin real-world examples in telecom and finance. | |
| Deploying AI Voice Agents for Customer Service | 6 | 4 | 2 | 3 | Greg suggests pitching cost-savings percentages like contingency lawyers. Eric offers a gentle counter-perspective based on Jason Cohen's thesis of pricing on captured value rather than cost savings. | |
| Performance CRO Agencies and Smart Contract Escrow | 6 | 4 | 0 | 1 | Greg proposes CRO pay-for-performance and shares a personal story of client defaults that smart contracts could solve. Eric shares his internal Solana-based employee incentive tool. | |
| Gamifying Daily Life and Spatial Computing Design | 6 | 2 | 1 | 2 | Greg introduces the Vision Pro chore demo, contextualizes the small hardware market size, and emphasizes sensory product design taste. Eric enthusiastically riffs on gamification ideas. | |
| Continuous Biometric Longevity and AI Health Knowledge | 4 | 5 | 1 | 2 | Eric breaks down his high-end longevity bloodwork and the potential for continuous monitoring with Dexa.ai. Greg highlights the prohibitive cost of elite longevity practitioners. | |
| Rebranding Physical Products and Cross-Cultural Arbitrage | 6 | 3 | 0 | 1 | Greg pitches his whitening night guard concept and the thesis of cross-cultural product arbitrage. Eric connects it to Hostage Tape's successful mouth tape branding. | |
| Unbundling Executive Networks and Niche Communities | 7 | 4 | 1 | 2 | Greg synthesizes executive networking trends into the concept of the 'unbundling of YPO,' citing competitors like Benwise and correcting Eric on Chief's executive demographic. Eric details dental and agency peer groups. | |
| Compounding Agency Cash Flow and AI Transformation | 6 | 5 | 0 | 0 | Eric explains why compounding agency cash flow beats chasing tech exits, highlighting AI transformation agency opportunities. Greg validates this using Noah Kagan's AppSumo software incubation model. |
Statements from this episode (16)
Siu: Friend's performance agency generates $30M profit on $80M revenue
“So one of my friends, his pay for performance agency does eighty million dollars a year, thirty million in profit, and they have like 30 employees.”
Siu: Skilled marketers should charge on performance instead of retainers
“And my whole thing is, as a marketer, if you're a good marketer, you would charge on performance, right? But most people aren't willing to take the risk.”
Siu: Major crypto exchanges are actively seeking performance marketing deals
“Finance depends on like, you know, I think there are a lot of crypto companies reaching out to us right now. A lot of the biggest exchanges, they all want to do pay for performance and, you know, there's money in crypto.”
Siu: Voice AI agents will eventually close SaaS deals autonomously
“It'll probably get to a point where eventually it can just close the customer too, especially if it's SaaS or help a customer or try to set up phone calls to move over to your AEs.”
Siu: Value-based pricing captures 4x to 8x more revenue than cost-savings
“You can either try to save a company money and take a percentage there, or you can just go straight for the value and you'll capture like four to eight times more.”
Siu: Spiralize operates as a pay-for-performance CRO agency taking revenue cuts
“You know, there's actually a pay for performance CRO agency based in Atlanta. I think they're, I forgot their name. I would, oh, spiralize. That's their name. And let's say your conversion, your e-com conversion rates one percent right now. I'm like, okay, wel…”
Siu: Solana micro-incentives boosted internal tool engagement by 77%
“That increased our engagement on a lot of these tools by like, I think it was like 77%.”
Siu: AI co-pilots make software developers 4x to 8x more effective
“With AI co-pilots and everything, like developers are becoming four to eight, eight X more effective.”
Siu: Personal longevity practitioner billed $5,000, including a $2,800 supplement
“So, like, the last invoice I got was, like, 5000 dollars, and, like, one of the supplements alone was, like, 2800.”
Isenberg: Cross-cultural product arbitrage represents a massive startup opportunity
“I think there's a huge opportunity, like, startup ideas-wise to see what's working in one culture and bring it to another culture.”
Isenberg: Unbundling executive networks like YPO by vertical is a major opportunity
“So I think it's sort of like the unbundling of, mm-hmm. YPO. And yeah, there's a ton of opportunity there. And the cool thing is it doesn't cost a lot of money to get going. Like, what do you need? A brand. A landing page and a vertical.”
Siu: Top agencies sold for 15x to 20x EBITDA prior to 2022
“Pre twenty-twenty-two, you're at five million EBITDA, you can sell for 15 to 20, if, like, your agency's really good 15 to 20 X.
And so, that's like a hundred million dollar business, if you wanted to sell.”
Siu: Earning $5M to $20M in agency profit equals an annual exit
“If your agency's doing, you know, five, 10, twenty million dollars in profit a year, that's an exit for you every single year.”