Subscribe here | Unsubscribe here | July 3, 2025 | FIV #83 |
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✅ Today's Checklist: |
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QUICK LINKS |
🤖 AI news. 5 major stories in the world of AI (including Meta Superintelligence Labs). |
🚀 Entrepreneurship. $0-$5 million: How to go from random wins to repeatable revenue. |
🌱 Personal growth. Finding your thing. |
🧠 AI 101. How founders can leverage AI without writing a single line of code. |
🧪 Experimentation. Hailuo's newest model just dropped. 10 mindblowing examples of what it can do. |
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Navigating the AI Avalanche: How I Think About Tools, Trends, and Long-Term Bets |
I get asked the same question every week: |
"Sean, what AI tools should I be using right now?" |
It's a fair question. But if I answered it straight-up, I'd be doing you a disservice. |
Because the truth is: that question is backward. |
There are thousands of AI tools right now—thousands. And by the time you finish reading this, ten more will have launched. The landscape is moving fast, yes—but speed alone isn't a strategy. We're not in a sprint. We're in a compounding game, and that requires something more durable than hype: clarity. |
Clarity about what you're actually trying to build. Clarity about your long-term mission. And clarity about the kind of leverage you want from AI—whether it's speed, cost savings, creative edge, or a moat competitors can't cross. |
Don't Get Played by the Shiny Object Chase |
A lot of founders and teams right now are running full-speed into every tool with a landing page. And I get it—it feels like if you're not constantly testing, you're falling behind. |
But I'd argue the opposite: if you're constantly context switching, constantly demoing tools you haven't thought deeply about, then you're already behind. |
You're not building. You're just reacting. |
It's like trying to win a chess match while your opponent is playing poker. They're playing a different game, and you're burning energy trying to keep up with the noise. |
Urgency ≠ Panic |
I believe in urgency. Family Fund backs founders who move fast, break things, and fix them better. But what I don't believe in is panic-pivoting. If your strategy changes every time a new AI app trends on X, you don't have a strategy—you have a content feed addiction. |
The best founders I know? They act fast within a clear framework. They've already decided what outcomes matter most for them—better customer experience, faster product cycles, more effective outbound. Then they reverse engineer their tool stack based on those outcomes. |
In other words, they know their use cases cold. |
Ask These 3 Questions Before You Add Any Tool |
Every AI tool I test goes through the same mental filter: |
1. What problem do I expect this to solve—and how measurable is that impact? |
If the answer is vague ("it'll probably save time"), I move on. |
2. How easy is it to integrate into my current workflows and team structure? |
If adoption is a mess, you'll end up wasting cycles on internal onboarding. |
3. Is this company showing consistent improvements? |
A roadmap without traction is just a dream. I want to see motion—updates, partnerships, and product velocity. |
AI-native companies are in their first innings. You're not just betting on what the tool is today—you're betting on what it could become. I'm looking for teams that ship relentlessly, adapt to real user feedback, and don't disappear after a spike on social media. |
Stack With Purpose, Not Fear |
FOMO is baked into this space. Every week it feels like the world might leave you behind if you don't jump on the next release. But if you're leading a company, you need to build from a place of vision and the joy of possibility, not fear. |
Your AI stack should reflect your goals—not Twitter trends. |
That means you need to do the hard work: define your priorities, define what "success" with AI actually looks like for your org, and test tools against that. |
And if you're an investor, don't just chase the hot demo. Look under the hood. Ask: How hard is it to replicate this? What's their moat? What does the real usage data look like? |
Because in 6 months, most of these tools will be gone. But the ones that stay? They'll be the new infrastructure. |
So yeah, move fast. But move with intention. Your time and focus are the most valuable resources you have—and spreading them thin on shallow experiments is a fast way to waste both. |
Tools I'm Currently Stress-Testing |
Right now, I'm in deep testing mode. Here's a snapshot of 9 tools that are either on my radar or I've been putting through the ringer—each for different reasons: |
Google Veo 3 – This one's ahead of the curve in video generation. The built-in sound effects are solid. The outputs are cinematic. And it's already showing potential as a backbone for creators and agencies alike. HeyGen – One of the fastest-moving avatar tools I've seen. I'm experimenting with it for pitch video production and team comms. Luma – Just pushed out major updates. I'm keeping a close eye on how their 3D video capture evolves; it's edging toward real utility for product marketing. Higgsfield – Their style transfer and emotional expression capabilities are wild. Will test how it plays in storytelling use cases. Vidu – Impressive out of the gate. Might need better fidelity control, but their creative direction is promising. Hailuo – Very curious about its Veo-level competitor claims. Haven't seen enough real-world footage yet, but it's on deck. Kling AI – Early experiments are surprising, especially with facial generation. Watching closely. Seedance – Early days, but there's a spark of something here in the creative animation space. Runway + Midjourney – Will test using Midjourney to create surreal, cinematic stills, then animating them with Runway Gen-2. Together, they are supposed to produce scroll-stopping, stylized video content that's hard to replicate, perfect for brand storytelling and short-form ads.
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If you're building or testing any of these—or others I missed—let me know. Always down to play around with new tools. |
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Sean's Pick of The Week |
Build a Team That Doesn't Sleep (Without Hiring Anyone) |
 | GREG ISENBERG @gregisenberg |  |
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How people are using AI agents, MCP and Claude to outcompete 99.9% of people using AI today (37 min tutorial explained simply) | |  | | | 11:47 PM • Jun 23, 2025 | | | | | | 2.77K Likes 329 Retweets | 63 Replies |
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This is one of the more interesting AI use cases I've come across lately—and it's especially useful if you're a founder juggling too much. |
A small but growing group is using Claude, MCP, and AI agents to automate everything from research to outreach to execution. |
There's a simple 37-minute tutorial that explains the setup without jargon, and it might just change how you think about scaling. |
Worth a look if you're trying to do more with less (and do it smarter). |
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