The Foundr Podcast with Nathan Chan

Episode 600: (Solo) How Founders Should Actually Use AI (Without Getting Lost)
Release Date: October 28, 2025
Host: Nathan Chan

Episode Overview

This milestone solo episode features Foundr CEO Nathan Chan sharing actionable insights on how founders can effectively leverage AI without feeling overwhelmed or lost. Drawing on his real-world experience, Nathan demystifies AI adoption by explaining practical methods founders can implement today—regardless of their technical proficiency. The episode’s core message is about integrating AI as a partner and tool for amplifying productivity, accelerating growth, and staying ahead in today’s fast-paced entrepreneurial landscape.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Role of AI as a Thinking Partner

Timestamps: 02:50 – 06:45

• Nathan’s Daily Use:
  Nathan emphasizes how AI serves him as a “thinking partner” throughout the day, helping with:

  • Overcoming writer’s block, drafting emails, and brainstorming ideas.

  • Leveraging tools like ChatGPT, Claude for emails and drafts, and Gamma for presentation decks.

    “If I want to understand a little bit more about our customers, I’ll dump a whole data set in there and look for commonalities.” (Nathan Chan, 05:12)

• Practical Examples:

  • Summarizing customer and competitor reviews

  • Creating presentation decks quickly with Gamma

  • Using AI via voice notes while driving for spontaneous ideation

    “I use it as a thinking partner to provide me insights wherever it can.” (Nathan Chan, 06:03)

• Prompt Engineering is Crucial:

  • Nathan highlights the importance of instructing AI correctly to get valuable results.

  • Strategy: Ask the AI to write the best possible prompt for your end goal.

    “If it’s writing the prompt for you, that’s how you know you’ll get the best outcome.” (Nathan Chan, 07:25)

2. Using AI to Increase Speed and Execution

Timestamps: 06:45 – 11:55

• Accelerating Workflow:

  • AI dramatically reduces time spent on tasks—

    • Writing and copyediting content
    • Creating scripts and mapping processes
    • Conducting deep competitor and product research

    “What would usually take me a couple of days or weeks, I can now get done in a couple of hours.” (Nathan Chan, 07:49)

• Deep Research:

  • Nathan urges founders to utilize ChatGPT’s “deep research” to access non-surface-level insights, especially for competitor analysis.

    “If you are wanting to look into a competitor, you can use the deep research function in ChatGPT. That is golden.” (Nathan Chan, 09:32)

• Product Development Example:

  • Rapid ideation and launch of Flagship (Foundr’s AI-driven product research tool) within a month—something that once took much longer.

    “Through the power of AI, I was able to create that product, launch that product in the space of like a month.” (Nathan Chan, 11:05)

3. Training AI Like a Team Member

Timestamps: 11:55 – 15:52

• Creating Personalization:

  • Set parameters for style preferences (e.g., no EM dashes, no emojis).

  • Train AI on signature stories, frameworks, and communication preferences to maintain authenticity.

    “You really want to be careful and train it on how you speak and you want it to learn certain stories over time.” (Nathan Chan, 12:45)

• Building Institutional Knowledge:

  • Foundr has developed in-house GPTs for automating and optimizing content, memorizing best-performing content, and personalizing outputs for Nathan and the team.

    “We’ve also trained it on high performing emails... trained our ChatGPT to know the best performing social media content for my personal brand.” (Nathan Chan, 14:07)

• Continuous Improvement:

  • Regularly feedback and retrain for optimal performance.

    “The more that you invest in training AI and setting it up, the more time you’ll get back.” (Nathan Chan, 15:18)

4. You Don’t Need to Be a Technical Expert

Timestamps: 15:52 – 18:45

• Democratizing AI Use:

  • Emphasizes that you can get tremendous value from AI without coding skills.

  • Focus on asking great questions, prompt creation, and specifying the AI’s “role” (e.g., “act as a world-class marketer”).

    “To master AI, you don’t need to be super technical, you just need to use it consistently and be curious.” (Nathan Chan, 17:34)

• Prompt Role-Play Tip:

  • Instruct AI to emulate different roles depending on the task (e.g. copywriter, consultant, media buyer).

    “I want you to act as a high performing copywriter... I want you to act as a McKinsey consultant...” (Nathan Chan, 17:11)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On AI’s magnitude of impact:

  “This is the biggest disruption that we’ve seen since the dawn of the Internet.” (Nathan Chan, 03:09)

• On safety and strategy:

  “The strategy always has to come from me. I don’t fully trust AI from a strategy perspective per se... sometimes, it goes kind of crazy and brings back data or information that’s actually not true.” (Nathan Chan, 10:09)

• On the importance of speed:

  “Speed is everything. And the founders that are winning right now, that are launching things, that are just like 10xing their output—they’re using AI.” (Nathan Chan, 11:39)

• On being non-technical:

  “I’m not technical. I don’t know how to write code... but what I do know is how to ask it great questions and how to train it.” (Nathan Chan, 15:55)

• Urgent advice:

  “If you are not using AI yet every single day as a founder, you are getting left behind.” (Nathan Chan, 18:21)

Actionable Takeaways

• Use AI daily as a co-pilot for thinking, research, and content creation.
• Invest time in “training” your AI tools on your unique style and business frameworks.
• Master prompt engineering by asking AI to write its own prompts based on your goals.
• Don’t be intimidated—AI’s value is highly accessible, even for non-technical founders.
• Continually refine and retrain your AI as your business evolves.

Key Timestamps

| Segment | Topic | Timestamp | |---------|-------|-----------| | Introduction & context | 00:00 – 02:22 | | AI as a thinking partner | 02:50 – 06:45 | | Speeding up execution | 06:45 – 11:55 | | Training AI as a team member | 11:55 – 15:52 | | No technical skills required | 15:52 – 18:45 | | Nathan’s closing statement | 18:21 |

Conclusion & Further Resources

Nathan Chan concludes by reiterating that daily, strategic use of AI is vital for contemporary founders. He encourages listeners to leverage Foundr Plus for advanced AI education through guest experts and ongoing training.

“Go out there and start using it... If you do want to stay up to date on the cutting edge, our Founder Plus membership, we have guest experts coming in all the time teaching how founders can use AI.” (Nathan Chan, 18:34)

For more founder insights and to access training, visit foundr.com and explore Foundr Plus membership.