AI - Fountain Future

Thanks for being here and taking a sip from the Fountain.

This week’s edition is an interesting one. We’re pulling back the curtain on how we’ve been experimenting with AI. The useful, the fun, the potentially stupid.

Here’s what to expect:

⏳ Estimated Read Time: 6 minutes

Was this email forwarded to you? Subscribe here. Also if you’re reading this as a subscriber and know somebody that would enjoy feel free to share.

FOUNDER RESOURCES

This week we’re talking about AI.

We’ve trained different models to sound like me, make images that look like real scenarios, tools for business, and to make videos for our event.

We decided to fully immerse ourselves in the hype and see what tools we’ve found useful, aren’t there yet, and outright useless. This will be an ongoing thread in the Fountain and we will be bringing in some Friends of the Fountain too.

You’ve seen the previous newsletters with our sketch images.

This is how we’ve been making them to support the stories we tell on the Fountain. One tool we leverage is Chat GPT premium.

We ask it to do the following:

That usually spits out something like this:

Since we don’t have real photos to go with some of the stories, these tools help us to make the story come to life, give us our own style, and make it an easier read.

Another great image generation AI tool that Ria and I use for interior design inspiration and creative direction assistance is Midjourney. The basic fee for Midjourney is $10/month and gives access to all images generated by users who also pay the basic fee so it’s a rabbit hole of abundant creativity.

The videos we use on the Fountain are usually more for fun and for experimentation. There are so many AI video tools coming out each month and we want to keep track of their capabilities.

We made a “Baby Trent” and a “silhouette Trent” All by leveraging free trials, or free tools. Look the baby Trent isn’t amazing. Trying to master it the way Theo Von has is difficult with no experience and free tools, but nonetheless it’s incredibly cute.

VEO 3 is taking over video production as well. Some people in the film industry even saying it’s mainstream to use AI. We explored VEO 3 asking it to make a trailer for our Gather ‘Round.

This was the prompt and this is what came out of it.

The AI spit this out. This is what AI thinks I look like?

There are some great AI tools to support businesses, make them more efficient, make them better.

The tools we use specifically at The Fountain include ChatGPT for image generation and grammar support, and AI notetakers that join each meeting to ensure we're efficient and provides a summary of action items.

I’ll mention we do not use AI to write these newsletters, authenticity still needs to be the focal point for our written content in our opinion, but we’re not above letting it catch a typo or two.

We’ve also been experimenting with AI sales agents and more. (Special shoutout to a friend at The Fountain Michael Lewski who runs Bluebelt a hiring AI for hard industries),

What tools are you using for your business? (Reply to this email and tell us what we should be using)

Q: As a second or a third time founder, what's one thing that you did differently that you wish you would have done as a first time founder?

ANSWER: The setup is so important. When I started my first businesses, I didn’t really think about future rounds.

Now, if I were starting again, I’d try to forecast the capital needed and where I end up equity-wise. This didn’t happen to me, but I’ve seen how preferred shares and guaranteed investor returns can push the founder down the line. I always advise people to avoid personal guarantees. If you sign one, then raise money, you could have 100% of the liability but only 80% of the equity—and that gets worse with each round.

Convertible loans are a great way to test the relationship between founder and investor. Instead of committing to an unknown valuation, you can agree to a small interest rate—5, 8, 9%—and in 12 or 24 months, either convert to equity at a pre-agreed share price or pay it back. Debt is always cheaper than equity if you believe in your business. If things go well, you can buy back the shares and keep more ownership.

Finally, the shareholders agreement is so important. I’ve done a few and I always tell people, don’t leave it to be figured out after the fact.

More details on Gather ‘Round!

Whether you’ve already got a ticket or are on the fence, we wanted to share a few more details about our inaugural event ‘Gather Round! in Kelowna.

As you know, w have designed this event to be intimate, informative, actionable and Fun (pools go well with almost everything :).

But, what we haven’t revealed is the surprise guest.. So, drumroll please.. the big news out of the Fountain this week is the special guest speaker for the Gather ‘Round is going to be Chris Koch!

Chris is a friend of the Fountain, international motivational speaker who has presented for the biggest companies in the world, and also completes marathons in his spare time. He is a an example of being able to achieve more than most people think possible and also an example of pure Fountain energy.

We are so excited and honoured to be bringing Chris to the Fountain community and he will also be at the VIP dinner (almost sold out!).

Huge thank you to Chris for coming and we cannot wait to learn from you 🙏🏼.

Tickets are limited to the event, and the VIP dinner has 4 seats left 🙂 We welcome your ideas and suggestions to help make Gather Round the best it can be. Invest in yourself and set your sail with intention on a better direction.

“One day, could be the day that turns your life around” - Jim Rohn

We hope to see you in Kelowna.
Bringing your curiosity, biggest questions, and bathing / poolside attire ⛱.

Stoked to fill your cups,
Trent & Ria