Startup Stories - Mixergy

Andrew Warner

Andrew Warner interviews startup entrepreneurs

  • #2298 This AI generates $689K
    Ben Cera used AI coding agents to build a company that generates $689K. The agent creates ads using AI-generated people, handles customer support, and even builds the product. This is the story of how he built Polsia and the future of business.

    Ben Cera is the founder of Polsia, an AI platform that autonomously builds and operates online businesses. A serial entrepreneur and former operator at CloudKitchens, Ben is now focused on creating AI-native companies where agents handle engineering, marketing, and operations with minimal human oversight. Polsia allows anyone to launch a business for $50/month, while the platform takes 20% of revenue in exchange for running the company.

    Sponsored by

    Zapier

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    2 March 2026, 6:15 pm
  • #2297 Elad Gil backed 40 unicorns. This is next
    Elad Gil was an early investor in 40 unicorns, including major AI companies like Perplexity. I asked him what’s next for software companies now that AI can code better than humans, and what he’d invest in after AI.

    Elad Gil is the Founder & Investor at Gil Capital, his private investment firm. He has backed some of the most iconic technology companies of the past two decades, including Airbnb, Stripe, Coinbase, Instacart, OpenAI, and SpaceX. A former executive at Twitter and Google, Elad is known for identifying major technology waves early — from social to SaaS to AI — and helping founders build category-defining companies.

    Sponsored by

    Zapier

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    24 February 2026, 6:20 pm
  • #2296 The $7 Million Vibe Coded App
    Josh Mohrer is the model of the kind of company that can be built with AI. He’s not a developer, but he vibe coded Wave AI into a $7 million / year note taking company. This is how he did it.

    Josh Mohrer is the founder of Wave AI, an AI-powered audio note-taking app that records, transcribes, and summarizes conversations across meetings, phone calls, and real-world settings. Before Wave AI, Josh was an early leader at Uber, where he served as New York General Manager during the company’s rapid expansion. Today, he runs Wave AI as a highly profitable, one-person SaaS business, using AI to replace entire teams while staying deeply hands-on with product and customers.

    Sponsored by

    Zapier

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    3 February 2026, 4:53 pm
  • #2295 Ryan Carson: How AI does my marketing for me
    When a new user signs up, most companies add them to a standard drip campaign. Ryan Carson found a better alternative: his AI agent sends customized drip messages to every new registrant. It helps his company close more business. It’s just one way he uses AI to act as his VP of marketing. In this interview, he breaks down how he automated his marketing.

    Ryan Carson is a three-time founder and longtime SaaS entrepreneur. He’s currently the founder of Untangle, an AI-powered platform designed to help people navigate divorce with clarity and less conflict. With over 25 years of startup experience, Ryan now focuses on building highly specialized AI agents that combine software, automation, and real-world business workflows.

    Sponsored by

    Zapier

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    26 January 2026, 7:48 pm
  • #2294 He Claude Code: Build Me a YouTube Replacement
    When YouTube kicked Pat Walls’ Starter Story channel off the platform, he spent a weekend getting Claude Code to build him a replacement. I wanted to see how it was done, so he walked me through it step-by-step. Turns out it was a mistake and he’s back on YouTube, but the site he made was so good that it’s his company’s new homebase.

    Pat Walls is the founder of Starter Story, a media and education company that helps entrepreneurs learn how real businesses get built. Starter Story generates over $2M a year through subscriptions, courses, and content, and its YouTube channel reaches millions of viewers each month. A former software engineer turned creator, Pat is known for experimenting publicly with new tools—most recently using AI to rebuild his own video platform when YouTube put his business at risk.

    Sponsored by

    Zapier

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    23 January 2026, 3:28 pm
  • #2293 $2 million / year AI engineering firm
    My friend created an AI engineering firm and every time I see him, he tells me how much his business is growing. So I asked him to tell me all about it in this interview. This is the story of how Tarun Thummala created PressW, the Austin-based AI dev shop.

    Tarun Thummala is the founder and CEO of PressW, an AI engineering firm that builds custom automation systems for real businesses in regulated, document-heavy industries. Instead of selling generic “AI transformation,” Tarun focuses on delivering specific workflow outcomes—often automating 90–95% of manual processes. Today, PressW generates over $2M in annual revenue by combining deep technical execution with a service-first approach to AI.

    Sponsored by

    Zapier

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    12 January 2026, 7:20 pm
  • #2292 AI Automation that makes cold calls
    Yevgeniy Matsay was a real estate broker who hated making cold calls. So he built an AI automation to do it for him. It worked so well that he created an agency that created cold calling automations for other brokers. Today he’s turning his automation service into Rozera, a cold calling SaaS for real estate brokers.

    Yevgeniy Matsay and Aidan Richards are the co-founders of Rezora, an AI-powered outbound calling platform built for real estate brokers. Yevgeniy is a former real estate agent with a background in computer science and cybersecurity, while Aiden leads sales, marketing, and operations. Together, they’re building AI voice agents designed specifically for real sales conversations—not generic chatbots—starting with real estate and expanding to other industries.

    Sponsored by

    Zapier

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    8 January 2026, 10:07 pm
  • #2291 He keeps launching AI businesses
    Over a decade ago, Joe Apfelbaum was on the podcast, telling me how focusing on SEO helped him grow his agency. That was hard for the idea-a-minute founder. Now he’s back. And AI is enabling him to create more businesses. He broke down the 5 types of companies anyone could make

    Joe Apfelbaum is the founder of Ajax Union, a digital marketing agency, and EvyAI, an AI-powered sales and social media assistant used by thousands of businesses worldwide. A longtime Mixergy guest, Joe previously grew Ajax Union into an Inc. 500 company before rebuilding it with AI-first systems after COVID. Today, he focuses on creating scalable AI services, software, and education products that help entrepreneurs grow without growing headcount.

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    30 December 2025, 7:22 pm
  • #2290 He’s building an AI media empire
    On the surface, it looks like Ricardo Vice Santos is selling AI-created books for your kids. But he’s aiming for something much bigger: a world where TV, movies, and every other media will be customized to you, using AI. He’s starting with children’s books because that’s what people will buy and what AI can do well today. This is the story of how he’s building DreamStories and how you can build a similar company.

    Ricardo is the founder of DreamStories, a company creating AI-powered, personalized children’s books tailored to individual families. Previously, he worked in consumer media and was an early team member at Spotify, where he developed a deep understanding of long-tail content and personalization. Drawing on that experience, Ricardo is now building toward a future where books, videos, and even movies are generated uniquely for each person.

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    29 December 2025, 10:12 pm
  • #2289 Building companies using Zapier’s AI automations
    Zapier used to be the software that connected all your other software. But it’s AI has become so powerful that people are using it to build software companies. Founder Wade Foster joined me to talk about and show how they’re building on it.

    Wade Foster is the co-founder and CEO of Zapier, the automation platform used by over 350,000 customers to connect more than 8,000 apps. He started Zapier in 2011 with just $1.2M in seed funding and grew it into a profitable company generating hundreds of millions in revenue. Today, Wade is leading Zapier’s evolution into AI-powered automation and agent-based workflows that help businesses move faster with fewer people.

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    19 December 2025, 6:20 pm
  • #2288 She had people do AI’s work
    Helen Hastings wanted to create better accounting software. To figure out what to build, she had humans do the work. This is the story of how she created Quanta, the accounting software that’s taking on QuickBooks with a more modern human+software approach.

    Helen Hastings is the founder and CEO of Quanta, an AI-powered accounting platform built for modern software and services companies. Before Quanta, she was a software engineer at Affirm, where she specialized in building financial ledgers and systems of record. She’s also worked at Google and NerdWallet, bringing deep fintech and infrastructure experience to one of accounting’s hardest problems.

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    17 December 2025, 10:20 pm
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