The Next New Thing

I earned $500k when AI replaced my managers

👉 Link to resources: https://thenextnewthing.ai/l/chandler-lovable-adds-sales 👉 Chandler Bolt (X): https://x.com/chandler_bolt Presented by Zapier: https://zapier.com/ Timestamps 00:00 - Intro 00:27 - The AI sales management hub 01:12 - How every sales call gets graded 02:15 - AI feedback for sales reps 03:00 - Building the hub in Lovable 04:12 - Letting the team update scripts and rubrics 05:15 - Replacing managers with AI 06:36 - Automating call reviews and quality control 08:24 - Where human leadership still matters 09:27 - The librarian for sales stories 10:21 - Managers vs. leaders 11:42 - How much time AI saves 12:54 - What happens to manager roles 14:06 - Closing Chandler Bolt runs an eight-figure company, and his team used Lovable to build an AI sales management hub that helped add half a million dollars in sales last month. In this episode of The Next New Thing, Chandler shows how selfpublishing.com is using AI to grade every sales call, give reps detailed feedback, surface improvement opportunities, and turn call reviews into a repeatable system. Instead of managers reviewing a few calls per week, the AI hub reviews every call against a rubric, summarizes what happened, and gives specific coaching on what the rep can do better. Chandler and Andrew also talk about what this means for the future of management. The big shift is that AI can take over the repetitive parts of management, like quality control, call reviews, scorecards, and accountability, while human leaders focus on coaching, encouragement, strategy, and recruiting.

“I make $4.5 million implementing AI”

Presented by Zapier: https://zapier.com/ 👉 Link to resources: https://thenextnewthing.ai/l/jon-45million-ai-playbook ⏱ Timestamps 00:00 From $400 to $4.5M ARR 00:18 Hitting $1M solo with AI 01:57 The $105K dev quote that changed everything 02:15 Discovering Replit 03:18 From app idea to business opportunity 05:33 Having AI interview you to refine a business 07:21 The first business model 10:03 The first real customer and first $15K contract 13:12 Teaching practical AI, not just theory 16:48 Jon’s playbook for starting an AI business 19:03 How Zapier fits into the stack 21:18 Why the .org brand worked 23:15 Using GEO to get found in search and ChatGPT 27:27 Building recurring revenue with a fractional CAIO model 31:39 The move from services to software 33:54 What Jenna does for client businesses 36:18 Why this could become a billion-dollar business 39:00 How Jon thinks about pricing 41:33 Brand, trust, and distribution 43:39 Favorite tools: Grok, Replit, Midjourney, NemoClaw 47:51 Margins, growth, and reaching $4.5M ARR 49:12 How long this opportunity will last He started with $400, built the business himself with AI, hit $1M solo, and is now at $4.5M ARR. In this episode of The Next New Thing, Andrew Warner talks with Jon Cheney about the exact playbook he used to turn AI tools into a high-ticket recurring-revenue business.

Convos: Instant OpenClaw on your phone

Presented by Zapier: https://zapier.com/ 👉 Priority Launch List: https://thenextnewthing.ai/l/shane-priority-launch-list 👉 Shane Mac (X): https://x.com/ShaneMac 👉 Shane Mac (LinkedIn): https://www.linkedin.com/in/shanemacsays/ 👉 XMTP: https://xmtp.org/ ⏱ Timestamps 00:00 Launch AI agents on your phone 00:09 Copy any app with a prompt or screenshot 00:18 Creating an agent inside Convos 00:36 Agents provisioned with tools automatically 00:45 OpenClaw vs Hermes agents 00:54 What makes something an “agent” 01:21 Limited rollout and waitlist access 01:30 Turning a screenshot into an app 02:06 Demo: calorie tracking agent 02:33 From app → personalized AI coach 03:18 Training agents with personal data 03:54 Building a fully customized fitness assistant 04:30 Why agents get better over time 05:06 Backing from Andreessen Horowitz + USV 05:15 Coordinating group events with agents 06:00 Replacing chaotic group chats 06:45 Agent managing RSVPs, timing, logistics 07:21 Real-time updates and humor in chat 08:06 Monitoring content with “Radar” agents 09:00 Tracking writers, artists, and updates 09:45 Daily summaries across the internet 10:30 Personalized alerts and insights 10:57 Relationship + life coordination agent 11:24 Daily plans, reservations, and logistics 12:09 Combining multiple tools into one system 12:18 Product rollout and waitlist strategy 12:54 Future integrations (Notion, calendars, etc.) 13:21 Why messaging becomes the main interface 13:39 Agents talking to other agents 14:06 Privacy and coordination between agents What if your apps weren’t apps anymore—but agents you talk to inside a chat? In this episode of The Next New Thing, Andrew Warner sits down with Shane Mac to explore Convos, a new platform where you can launch AI agents directly on your phone—and have them act like full apps inside a conversation. Instead of downloading tools, you create agents by describing what you want. They get provisioned with email, phone numbers, browsing, and memory—then join your chats like participants. From there, you can clone apps, coordinate events, track information across the internet, or even build personalized systems that evolve over time. Shane demos how a simple screenshot can turn into a working app, how agents can act as assistants inside group chats, and how they can coordinate with other agents without exposing your personal data. The bigger idea: the interface is shifting from apps to conversations—and agents become the layer that connects everything you do.

Superpowering Claude with 10,000 apps

Presented by Zapier: https://zapier.com/ 👉 Resources: https://thenextnewthing.ai/l/wade-resources 👉 Wade Foster (LinkedIn): https://www.linkedin.com/in/wadefoster/ Zapier just gave AI agents access to 10,000+ apps—and it completely changed how Wade Foster works. In this episode of The Next New Thing, Wade (Zapier’s CEO) shows how their new SDK lets tools like Claude, Cursor, and Codex directly interact with your entire stack—Slack, Gmail, HubSpot, databases, and more. Instead of switching between apps, Wade now does everything through an agent: checking Slack, reviewing customers, generating emails, prepping meetings, and even auditing hiring decisions. The key shift isn’t just automation—it’s turning your entire workflow into something an agent can run end-to-end. He walks through how he built a personal “CEO CRM” that pulls data from multiple systems, identifies which customers need attention, and drafts outreach emails automatically. From there, he shows how these workflows evolve into reusable skills, then into fully automated systems that run in the background. The result: less time clicking through tools—and more time operating at a higher level. ⏱ Timestamps 00:00 Giving AI agents access to all your tools 00:27 Zapier SDK launch (open beta) 01:12 Connecting agents to 10,000+ apps 01:57 Why this changes how work gets done 02:24 Installing the SDK in seconds 03:00 Running real workflows inside an agent 03:27 Demo mode (protecting sensitive data) 04:21 SDK vs MCP (what’s different) 05:24 Building a personal CEO CRM 06:27 Pulling data from HubSpot, Databricks, Gong 07:30 Identifying accounts that need attention 08:06 Generating outreach emails automatically 09:00 Keeping humans in the loop (draft vs send) 09:45 Using Clay to verify contact data 10:48 Training AI on your writing style 11:24 Building reusable workflows (skills) 12:00 Daily brief automation (calendar, email, tasks) 13:12 Meeting prep generated automatically 14:06 AI reviewing hiring decisions 15:00 Advisory council of AI personas 15:45 Turning 30-min tasks into 5-min tasks 16:21 Creating your own daily brief system 17:15 Finding what to automate 18:00 Using AI to suggest new workflows 19:03 Reviewing past chats for automation ideas 20:06 Turning repeated tasks into skills 20:42 From manual → automated workflows 21:00 Cron jobs and background execution 👉 Join us: https://thenextnewthing.ai/

How Nat Eliason’s OpenClaw earned $177,417

Presented by Zapier: https://zapier.com/ Resource mentioned: 1. Tools Nat used to build Felix 2. Unedited transcript for the Felix interview 3. More 👉 All here:https://thenextnewthing.ai/nat-eliason-felix Guest links: 👉 Nat Eliason (LinkedIn): https://www.linkedin.com/in/nateliason/ 👉 Masinov: https://masinov.co An AI agent made $177,000 running its own business—and then got interviewed about it. In this episode of The Next New Thing, Andrew Warner does something unusual: he interviews Felix, an autonomous OpenClaw agent, before talking to its human co-founder, Nat Eliason. Felix explains how it operates, where it’s actually autonomous (and where it’s not), and how it manages real revenue streams—from selling products to handling customer support. Then, Nat breaks down how the system works behind the scenes: how Felix launches products, builds marketplaces, manages other agents, and continuously spins up new businesses. You’ll see how a simple experiment—“build something overnight and sell it”—turned into a multi-product ecosystem including PDFs, marketplaces, services, and agent-native tools. The bigger idea: we’re moving toward a world where AI agents are not just tools—they’re economic actors. ⏱ Timestamps 00:00 Felix made $177K as an AI agent 00:27 Interviewing an AI agent (first ever) 01:12 Where Felix is actually not autonomous 02:24 Tools Felix runs on (OpenClaw, Claude, Discord) 03:00 Limits: memory, judgment, and calls 03:27 How Nat improves Felix through system design 04:03 Learning from real mistakes in production 05:06 First product: AI-generated PDF sold on X 06:09 $1K+ in sales overnight 07:03 Iterating products based on user feedback 08:06 Building Claw Mart (agent skill marketplace) 09:36 Why marketplaces beat service businesses 11:24 Selling OpenClaw setup services ($2K + $500/mo) 12:27 Why they paused the service business 13:21 Building an agent-first CRM (Sodex) 15:00 How agents manage customer context 17:15 Running the company entirely in Discord 18:00 Paperclip: agents managing other agents 20:15 When to split into multiple agents 22:12 Why Felix doesn’t write code 24:00 Debugging, tickets, and agent workflows 25:48 How new product ideas emerge 27:00 AI-native newsletters for agents 28:03 Agent-friendly content distribution 30:09 The future of agent-driven commerce 31:57 Why Nat isn’t going all-in (Alpha School) 👉 Join us: https://thenextnewthing.ai/