Before we dive in to this week’s newsletter:

New pod episode is LIVE with JT Barnett, a short-form video expert. We chatted about ways the make it big on TikTok. Pretty helpful stuff to know.

Listen on Spotify and Apple or watch on YouTube with some visuals.

Subscribe so you don’t miss the next week’s episode with Harley Finkelstein, President of Shopify.

Let’s get into this week’s newsletter

Thesis: “DoNotPay for X” is one of the most powerful frameworks for thinking about opportunities to be building in AI.

The real power of AI lies in its ability to handle repetitive, painful tasks quickly. There is no better example than DoNotPay.

DoNotPay — the world’s first robot lawyer — started off as a robot that fought parking tickets and now wields AI to solve many of the annoying problems we face every day.

The homepage lists five things DoNotPay can do: 

• Fight Corporations

• Beat Bureaucracy

• Find Hidden Money

• Sue Anyone

• Automatically Cancel Your Free Trials

Let’s use their Negotiate My Salary problem. Clicking on this task brings you to a big pink button that reads ‘Solve This Problem For Me’. Fill out the information, and robots will send a letter to your employer in an attempt to get you a raise at work.

Pretty wild…

DoNotPay has over 80 different things you can have robots solve for you. There’s probably 80 million problems out there in the world we could be trying to solve. This is a huge idea — some of these problems are multi-billion dollar-per-year problems.

And the best part? You can pick just one niche, dominate it. The market for DoNotPay for X is billions yearly. This reminds me of the unbundling of Reddit.

Just like there are thousands of opportunities to unbundle Reddit, there are thousands of opportunities to unbundle DoNotPay.

How to build your DoNotPay for X

Start with either a niche or geography and write down all of the problems people within these categories face on a regular basis.

Sort the problems into three types of solutions:

• Save time — something that isn’t worth your time

• Save money — something that’s costing you too much money

• Hate jobs — something you do not enjoy doing

Ask yourself: Can a robot do this?

If so, use AI and code to set up a robot that figures out how to solve the problem. Who to call, what to say, how to speak like a human, how to respond to common objections, and be convincing enough to solve the problem you’re facing.

Robots are the real superheroes

I learned about the DMV watching The Simpsons when I was growing up in Canada. I remember seeing how absurd the process was depicted in the show. When I had to go to the DMV for the first time in the U.S., I thought there was no way it was painful as it was depicted on The Simpsons. Turns out it was even more painful.

Can you set up a robot that goes to the DMV for you? Not one that shows up in person — a robot that handles renewing your registration or transferring your title without you having to stand in line.

That’s the key part: the best AI companies are going to be the ones solving problems you can’t even imagine robots solving.

When you’re about to click the button to solve a problem, the site shows a quote that sums up the future of these business models:

"The Hero the World Needs." -TIME Magazine, June 2016

What do we need Spiderman, Superman, or Batman for? Last time I checked, Spiderman can’t get us a better quote on our insurance. Batman can’t get us out of jury duty.

You think superheroes wear capes, but in fact, superheroes are just going to be robots.

Build your own superhero, make people's lives more enjoyable. and watch the money come in.

Be well,
Greg Isenberg

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