Question for Carl regarding emulating his approach to entrepreneurship

MohammadWChoudhury

Hey Carl,

I’m a 21-year-old Computer Science student at UT Austin. Since I was 13, I’ve dreamed of starting a company. I have experience in AI (I deployed an ML model for Reddit’s home feed over the summer) but I am struggling with where to take my passion and knowledge in starting a company.

I’ve been advised to focus on a small solution for a niche problem and ensure a strong product-market fit before diving into development. While I understand the logic, it doesn’t resonate with me as a builder. I admire how you approached the Android market with Nothing by first focusing on design with the Ear (1) before moving on to revolutionize the smartphone space with the Nothing Phone. I want to take a similar approach but with computers, rethinking how we use them in an AI-driven world.

I’ve already worked on projects like a natural-language chatbot for MacOS that can create, delete, open, and analyze files on your Mac, and most recently something that can navigate around your Mac for you to do tasks through natural language. However, these ideas seem small in comparison to what I really want to build, a natural language way to control your operating system, an OS built for AI, not around it.

My question is: should I start with a small niche product, or take the risk of building my broader vision for an AI-powered operating system from the outset?

Thank you for your time and inspiration.

Carl

I don’t think you should start a company at this age.

The biggest issue is not being able to distinguish between the right thing and the wrong thing to focus on, which can cause you to waste years of time going down a dead end path.

You should spend your 20s (or at least first 5 years) acquiring skills, the most important one being decision quality.

Sumith_9AhAV7bdiQ

Carl

What skills should one focus on acquiring in the fast-moving world?

The best way is to work under someone and learn or by building things.?

What would you have done if you were just starting and 21?

Carl

It’s too late to emulate me, but that doesn’t mean you can’t surpass me over time if you find a good method.

For context, I started doing business at 12. At your age, I had been doing it for almost a decade. Even with that, I worked for others for another decade before trying something on my own.