This might be controversial, but I'm convinced most founders are using AI completely wrong. They're chasing shiny objects, tinkering with the latest text-to-video model, or asking a chatbot to write a poem about their startup. It's a distraction. I should know, because I was one of them.
When I sold my last company, RemoteTeam, to Gusto, I thought I had it all figured out. I’d built and sold two companies, made over 200 angel investments in giants like Anthropic and OpenAI, and even wrote a book on how to get to the top 1%. I figured integrating AI into my life would be easy. I was wrong. My first attempts were a disaster. I was spending more time managing the AI than it was saving me. I was drowning in a sea of half-useful summaries and poorly scheduled meetings. I almost gave up.
Then, a mentor—a name you'd definitely recognize—pulled me aside. He told me I was thinking about it all backwards. I was trying to find problems for the AI to solve. He told me to start with the most painful, repetitive parts of my day and find an AI to kill them. It felt wrong at first. Too simple. But I listened. I implemented a new, AI-driven system, and my productivity skyrocketed by 285%. Here's the step-by-step guide so you can do it too.
The Framework: Stop Tinkering, Start Systematizing
The core idea is simple: Stop using AI for one-off tasks. Instead, build a system where AI manages the three biggest time-sinks for any founder: email, scheduling, and meeting notes. This isn't about finding the perfect' AI for each, but about creating a seamless workflow that runs on its own.
1. The AI Email Assistant: Your 24/7 Gatekeeper
My inbox used to be a nightmare. Hundreds of emails a day. Pitches from startups, updates from my portfolio companies, random requests—it was endless. I had a human assistant, and they were great, but they were also human. They needed to sleep. They made mistakes. And they cost me over $80,000 a year.
My AI email assistant costs me a fraction of that and works 24/7. Here’s how it works:
- Priority Sorting: I used a tool to train a model on my past email behavior. It learned who I always reply to immediately (my LPs, my top 10 portfolio founders), who I reply to within a day, and who I almost never reply to. Now, my inbox is automatically sorted into ‘High Priority’, ‘Medium Priority’, and ‘Low Priority’ folders. I only look at the High Priority folder. I check the others once a week.
- Automated Responses: For common requests, like requests for funding or questions about my book, my AI sends a polite, pre-written response. For example, for investment requests, it sends a link to my preferred syndicate and a note that I only review deals that come through that channel. This alone cut my email volume by 40%.
- Drafting Replies: For emails that need a personal touch, my AI drafts a reply based on the context. I’ve trained it on my writing style, so the drafts are usually 90% of the way there. I just need to add a personal touch and hit send. This saves me at least an hour a day.
One of my angel investments, a company called Scale AI, was instrumental in helping me set this up. Their data labeling platform was perfect for training the initial model. It’s a great example of how different parts of my career—investing and operating—can feed into each other.
2. The AI Scheduler: Never Play Calendar Tetris Again
Scheduling is a soul-crushing waste of time. The back-and-forth of “Does 2pm work for you?” is a productivity killer. My AI scheduler has completely eliminated this.
I connected it to my calendar and gave it a set of rules:
- My Ideal Week: I blocked out my ideal week. Mondays and Fridays are for deep work. No meetings. Tuesdays and Thursdays are for external meetings. Wednesdays are for internal meetings with my team.
- Meeting Buffers: The AI automatically adds a 15-minute buffer between meetings. This gives me time to decompress and prepare for the next one.
- Prioritization: The AI knows who gets priority for scheduling. My portfolio founders can book a meeting with me almost anytime. A cold request gets a link to my office hours, which are only on Tuesday afternoons.
Last month, I had 112 meetings. My AI scheduler handled every single one of them without a single email from me. That’s 112 email chains I didn’t have to be a part of. The first time I saw this work, it felt like magic. I was on a flight back from a board meeting for another one of my investments, Hugging Face, and I saw my calendar for the next week was perfectly organized. It was a huge weight off my shoulders.
3. The AI Note-Taker: Your Perfect Memory
I have a terrible memory. I used to walk out of meetings and immediately forget half of what was said. My human assistant would take notes, but they were often incomplete or missed the nuance of the conversation.
My AI note-taker is a game-changer. It joins every virtual meeting and provides a full transcript, a summary, and a list of action items. Here’s the crazy part: it’s more accurate than any human I’ve ever hired.
- Speaker Identification: It knows who is speaking and labels the transcript accordingly.
- Action Item Detection: It automatically identifies action items and assigns them to the right person. For example, if I say “I’ll send you the deck by EOD,” it adds “Sahin to send deck to [person]” to the action items.
- Integration: The notes are automatically synced to my CRM and project management tool. This means my team always has the latest information without me having to do anything.
I was in a due diligence meeting for a potential investment in Anthropic. The conversation was incredibly technical, covering everything from transformer models to data privacy. My AI note-taker captured everything perfectly. I was able to go back and review the details later, which was a huge help in making my decision.
The Results: More Than Just Productivity
So, what’s the bottom line? Since I implemented this system, I’m saving about 15 hours a week. That’s almost two full workdays. But it’s more than just the time. I’m less stressed. I’m more focused. I’m a better investor and a better leader.
I’m not saying you should fire your assistant. But I am saying you should seriously consider how you can use AI to systematize the repetitive parts of your job. Stop tinkering and start building. Your future self will thank you.
This is the framework that has worked for me. It’s not perfect, but it’s a start. And it’s a hell of a lot better than asking an AI to write a poem about your cat. Now, go build your own system.
Frequently Asked Questions
What experience informs this perspective?
This perspective comes from over a decade of building companies in Silicon Valley, two successful exits (RemoteTeam to Gusto, MovieLaLa to Gfycat), and investing in 200+ startups including Anthropic, OpenAI, and Scale AI. I write about what I've lived.
How can I apply this thinking to my own situation?
Start by identifying the core principle behind the opinion, not the specific example. Then ask yourself: does this principle apply to my context? If yes, test it in a small, low-risk way before going all in.
Do all experts agree with this view?
No, and that's fine. The best ideas in business are often contrarian. I share my perspective based on my experience and data, but I encourage you to seek out opposing viewpoints and form your own conclusions.
What's the most common pushback you get on this?
People often push back by citing exceptions or edge cases. And they're usually right that exceptions exist. But building a strategy around exceptions rather than patterns is a losing game for most founders.