How Will People Make Money in the AI Age?

In this solo episode, I walk through the 13 businesses I think are left to build in the agentic era. I believe that in a world of agents and abundance, owning the right assets puts you in a better position. For each business, I explain what it is, why it holds up in a world of agents, and one or two examples, from Othership's sauna clubs to Osmo's window-cleaning robots. This episode gives you a map of where to build next, at any age.

Timestamps

00:00 – Intro

01:15 – AI-Native Service Firms

02:57 – Offline Businesses

05:41 – Distribution and Organic Audiences

07:34 – Proprietary Data Sets

09:08 – Domain-Specific Harnesses

12:16 – Robotics and Physical AI

14:01 – Physical Products With a Fan Following

16:34 – Compute and Energy

17:31 – Health, Longevity, and Care

19:30 – Marketplaces and Social Networks

21:04 – Real Assets

21:46 – Vertical Agents

22:18 – Security

24:08 – Closing Thoughts

Key Points

• In an AI-native service firm, agents do most of the delivery and a human reviews the exceptions.
• Ad clicks went from about five cents in 2009 to $1–5 today, so I start with organic audiences.
• Proprietary data and domain-specific harnesses are the two gold rushes I see right now.
• Offline businesses, niche hardware, and robotics sell rooms, objects, and labor that agents only support.
• Compute, energy, and security are the scarce inputs every agent depends on.

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