Gavin Payne

@gregisenberg I’ve been working with companies on identifying AI value at scale. The challenge is turning the right opportunities into cases clients will invest in We’re building Prefolio around that: prefolio.ai Ping me for a free trial..

THE CLEAREST PATH TO A $10M+ SOFTWARE EXIT in 2 YEARS (with AI and agents) building an agency right now is one of the most interesting business moves the productized agency had its moment in 2022. it collapsed because scaling humans is a nightmare. inconsistent output, people quitting, margins getting crushed. most of the founders (and creators) who tried it got burned and moved on but the thesis was right. the labor problem is just solved now with AI, claude code, openclaw etc. here's the actual playbook i'd run today: pick one painful deliverable for one specific buyer. like SEO content for e-commerce brands doing $1M+ but not "marketing." or like ad creatives for DTC brands spending $50k/month on meta. one thing. one customer. that's it then you build the AI workflow behind it. you're selling an outcome on a monthly retainer. $3-5k/month. 80%+ margins because your cost is compute and a few hours of QA "BuT tHaT'S nOt a BiG bUsInnesS" okay but you're still swinging for the fences because the agency IS the research and development for your agent SaaS every client is paying you to figure out what to automate. you're learning what breaks, what scales, what customers actually want. by month 4 you know exactly what to productize. you build the software on top of the workflow you've already proven works and already have customers paying for agency funds the agent SaaS. SaaS scales without the agency overhead. the clients become your first software customers now let's talk about what this actually looks like financially year 1: 10 clients at $4k/month. $480k revenue. 2 people. maybe $80k in costs including compute, tools, one part time VA. you're taking home $400k between two people while building the software in the background year 2: you launch the software. your 10 agency clients are the first to convert. they already trust you. they've seen the output. you charge $800/month for the software version. now you have recurring software revenue AND the agency still running year 3: agency is winding down or running on autopilot. software has 200 customers at $800/month. that's $1.9M ARR. 2-3 person team. 85% margins. you are now a very attractive acquisition target the exit math is interesting. SaaS at $1.9M ARR with strong retention trades at 5-8x revenue. that's a $10-15M exit for something two people built in 3 years starting with zero VC CAVEAT: Startups are hard. A lot needs to go right. But from a framework perspective, I think this probably the lowest risk, highest reward option for lots of of folks and most of the businesses cost $0 to start basically this is the most capital efficient path to a software exit that exists right now happy building

@1kalogne @neuroglioma @TheICHpodcast How you approach, engage, and capture AI use cases matters. The challenge is turning promising ideas into a defensible portfolio that earns stakeholder buy-in and real investment. That’s exactly why we built Prefolio: prefolio.ai

@neuroglioma @TheICHpodcast You must of not heard is last point about sales. This is the part everyone doesn’t figure out until it’s too late. Idk why sales isn’t a huge part of our education system. You gotta learn to build rapport , pitch and clearly and effectively communicate your value. Quickly

Grant Cardone reveals how to make $80,000/month with AI consulting👀 “I’d make $1,000,000 in year 1”

@neuroglioma @TheICHpodcast How you approach, engage, and capture AI use cases matters. The challenge is turning promising ideas into a defensible portfolio that earns stakeholder buy-in and real investment. That’s exactly why we built Prefolio: prefolio.ai

The part nobody talks about is that AI consulting revenue at that level requires you to already have distribution and trust built before you ever mention AI Without an existing audience or client base you are cold starting into a market where everyone is suddenly an expert The real edge isnt knowing AI its having people who already pick up when you call

@eptwts How you approach, engage, and capture AI use cases matters. The challenge is turning promising ideas into a defensible portfolio that earns stakeholder buy-in and real investment. That’s exactly why we built Prefolio: prefolio.ai

grant cardone just leaked the secret sauce... just get 10 clients, each paying you $8k/month and just go in and push all their AI, bring like 3 AI platforms into their company generational

@icanvardar prefolio.ai

i can spot an ai generated landing page instantly. try me

@lukepierceops A defencable audit backed by data to get sig off. You need to do this in days. Not weeks. prefolio.ai

Grant Cardone nails the opportunity here. Every single company needs AI implementation. The TAM is just too massive to ignore. I’d push back a bit with leading with a “consulting fee”. Unless you have extreme authority in that vertical, you’re leaving money on the table. Consulting fees and retainers should be sold on the back end. Lead with audit and discovery. Show them what’s broken, what’s possible, and what the ROI looks like. Then price by impact. You’ll make way more money. And you’ll actually retain clients because they see results before they see invoices. Either way, the core message is right. If you’re going to start something right now, start here. Every company needs an AI team (you) and almost none of them have one yet.

@coreyganim Building AI isn’t hard anymore. Building the right AI is. Most ideas aren’t worth it. Prefolio helps consultancies focus on the ones that are. Ping me for a free $200 trial → prefolio.ai

the fact that people think this "doesn't work" or "isn't a viable business model" is hilarious. it's quite literally the easiest way to make money in AI with zero experience. keep in mind the vast majority of humans have never touched AI, so thinking that they can just go and do it themselves is not true. they can't, and they won't. that's why they pay me.

@coreyganim Building AI isn’t hard anymore. Building the right AI is. Most ideas aren’t worth it. Prefolio helps consultancies focus on the ones that are. Ping me for a free $200 trial → prefolio.ai

me hyping you up to go sell your first AI audit for $999 because the model is stupid simple: 1. charge $999 for a 45-min interview where you ask "where does your time go?" 2. feed the transcript to Claude. it spits out 5-7 AI tool recommendations with hours saved per week 3. build a polished report in Gamma (30 min from a template, looks like a $10K consulting deliverable) 4. walk them through it on a review call 5. upsell additional services for $3-10k+ you don't need to be technical. you don't need to code. you don't even need to know the tools. you simply need to ask good questions (and Claude can create the question bank for you). the window is wide open. most business owners know they should be using AI but have no idea where to start. be the person who tells them. full guide below 👇

@ThePeterMick @JoinPond Building AI isn’t hard anymore. Building the right AI is. Most ideas aren’t worth it. Prefolio helps consultancies focus on the ones that are. Ping me for a free $200 trial → prefolio.ai

Want more eyes on your startup this weekend? 🏆 Drop your pitch & URL 👇 Seen by thousands last week 👀

@gregisenberg Building AI isn’t hard anymore. Building the right AI is. Most ideas aren’t worth it. Prefolio helps consultancies focus on the ones that are. Ping me for a free $200 trial → prefolio.ai

the CLEAREST path to $5m ARR AI startup is something nobody talks about on X, is BORING and requires 0 venture investors. it's called a leveraged agency. & i'm gonna show you exactly how to build one. Phase 1: learn by doing ($1-5k/month) find a b2b/prosumer problem so boring it makes people want to die. insurance forms. invoice processing. review responses. the more soul-crushing, the better. now here's where everyone mess up up: they rush to build software. slow down, cowboy. we'll get there. you do it MANUALLY. like a caveman. $2k/month to be someone's human copy-paste machine. your friends raising seed rounds will think you've lost it. they're building "the future." you're copying data from PDFs. they'll feel bad for you, and you'll probably feel bad for yourself too. but when you do the work manually, you learn what NO customer interview will teach you. which fields actually matter. what breaks everything. what clients say they want vs what they'll actually pay for. YOU EARN THE INSIGHT. six months of this. pure pain. pure learning. Phase 2: Build the Machine ($5-25k/month) month 7 hits different. you've seen every edge case. every stupid request. every way a human breaks the process. NOW you build. not a product. a SYSTEM. AI agents are your new employees. you're duct-taping AI agents together to do EXACTLY what you were doing manually. and better. you dont need to reinvent an agent platform. you build on top of lindy, gumloop, use claude code/cursor. here's the beautiful part... you keep charging the SAME price. client doesn't care HOW you do it. they care that it's DONE. your margins just went from 40% to 80%. you can handle 50 clients instead of 5. you keep costs low, begin using agents to fulfill some of the work. you become a lindy ai, gumloop, claude code/cursor g. Phase 3: Package the Magic ($25k+/month) time to segment, you add new pricing tiers. Enterprise: $8k/month. white glove everything. Self-serve: $500/month. here's your login, figure it out. API: $99/month. for the nerds. same backend. different prices. pure profit. watch this: "we use AI to revolutionize workflows" → crickets. "we process your forms in 24 hours with 99.9% accuracy" → SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY. "BuT yoU mAkE it SouNd sO EaSY. HoW to gEt CuStoMers" every week, solve ONE problem in public: "client had 47 customs delays. built this tracker. saved $80k. here's the exact template." give it ALL away. 1000 people see it → 100 save it → 10 try it → 1 succeeds → 9 become clients. you put paid ads behind the organic stuff that is working. that 1 person tells everyone you gave away the secret sauce. the 9 who failed? they pay you $3k/month because doing it themselves is harder than it looks. Why the leveraged agency is a good business to start if you want to make a few million venture-backed startup: burn millions. maybe win. probably die. leveraged agency: profitable day one. still good multiples. t no fundraising. no board meetings. no product-market fit risk because you ALREADY KNOW the market pays for this. you can find a bunch of these ideas at @ideabrowser (free one everyday!!) everyone wants to change the world. the world just wants their PDFs typed into Salesforce. find boring problem → do it manually → build AI agents to replace yourself → charge service prices for automated work. highest probability path to $5M ARR for an AI startup in 2025.

@TommiPedruzzi Building AI isn’t hard anymore. Building the right AI is. Most ideas aren’t worth it. Prefolio helps consultancies focus on the ones that are. Ping me for a free $200 trial → prefolio.ai

The highest ROI AI business model in 2026 is: - Not an agency - Not building chatbots - Not automation services It’s something almost no one is talking about. But I’ve QUIETLY made $700,000 in the last 11 months doing this. And it compounds every month. • Without showing my face • Without revealing my name • Without any employees to manage All you need: ChatGPT, Claude, and 1 hour a day. I broke down the entire model in a 5+ hour training. With all my AI prompts and workflows. To get it: Like this post Comment “ROI” I’ll DM you the full system for free.

@georgesttock Building AI isn’t hard anymore. Building the right AI is. Most ideas aren’t worth it. Prefolio helps consultancies focus on the ones that are. Ping me for a free $200 trial → prefolio.ai

Starting an AI ecom agency now is like launching a Facebook ads agency in 2017 but this time there’s no filming, no editors, no ad spend. You build AI systems that post hundreds of product videos daily using AI UGC. Clients pay for results — not hours. Each account scales to $15–50K/month in recurring retainers. RT + comment “AI” and I’ll send the setup.

@benkellyone Building AI isn’t hard anymore. Building the right AI is. Most ideas aren’t worth it. Prefolio helps consultancies focus on the ones that are. Ping me for a free $200 trial → prefolio.ai

AI created the best acquisition opportunity of the last decade. A small HVAC company, accounting firm, or property management business with 5 employees and no AI systems is running at 60% efficiency. You buy it. You implement AI in the first 30 days. Scheduling, invoicing, follow-ups, customer service, the whole 9 yards. Easily one of the best ways to make money right now. & most people are too scared to try.

@SuhailHila11969 You can build agents. You can automate workflows. But capability isn't the problem — focus is. Not every AI idea is worth building. Prefolio helps consultancies find the ones that are. Start free → prefolio.ai

@eliana_jordan Google Photos

someone please build an app to automatically organize my iphone photos It’s absolute chaos

Hey @Deliveroo. Product idea. I shake my phone and you select a random restaurant and item based on my profile, and previous orders. I’m bored and indecisive and hangry. Hire me and I’ll make up the UX for you.

@imuratalpay Always great feeling to AppStore approval on your first app. Congrats sir

Apple said yes!! My first app just hit the App Store 🥳 Let’s go!!! 🚀

@Shawnife You can build agents. You can automate workflows. But capability isn't the problem — focus is. Not every AI idea is worth building. Prefolio helps consultancies find the ones that are. Start free → prefolio.ai

More than four years ago, I tweeted this, and since then: - I’ve founded my AI media and consultancy startup, The AI Colony focused on growth for Al & Tech products and simplifying AI for everyone. - In one year of being a UK registered company, we have worked with over 80 paid clients from 5 continents around the world. - We launched our product, which serves as one of the world’s first gamified launchpads, The AI Library. Now, over 160 AI tools have now submitted their products. - We now have a user base on The AI Library that extends to more than 170 countries. - Started my second masters in Artificial Intelligence at THE King’s College London. - Been involved in core AI and Tech communities with some of the moguls in the industry. - Been invited to various AI and Tech events. - Did my first MSc thesis in; Enhancing Aircraft Performance In The UK Aviation Industry Using AI-based Predictive Maintenance Systems, which I got a distinction in. - We have our 2nd and 3rd products launching later this year. - We have a global event coming in 2025, starting in Nigeria. Aiming to make this a way of giving back! - Assembled the best team of 12 amazing staff (and growing) for my startup. - Earned in 11 different currencies through my AI company, so far. Thankful to God for growth, but it’s still day one! 📈

@unusual_whales You can build agents. You can automate workflows. But capability isn't the problem — focus is. Not every AI idea is worth building. Prefolio helps consultancies find the ones that are. Start free → prefolio.ai

OpenAI has announced partnerships with consulting companies McKinsey, Accenture, Boston Consulting and Capgemini