61: Dennis R. Mortensen - How to win with building for productivity

Dennis R. Mortensen is a serial entrepreneur and the founder of LaunchBrightly, which makes money by automating the most annoying things in our work lives (through AI).

We talk about why it’s important to own your own data set for competitive advantage and the misconception that successful entrepreneurs should become investors. Dennis refuses to do anything else other than focussing on his startups. No boards, no investing, just focus.

We conclude with a discussion on the future of user interfaces and the potential for voice-first products.

Takeaways

Owning your own data set is the only way to stay in business

Successful entrepreneurs are not obligated to become investors; they can continue to jump into the next startup

Genuinely hating a problem is the number one reason for motivation and success in solving it.

The future of user interfaces is uncertain, but voice-first products and more intelligent assistants are expected.


Sound Bites

"There is this belief, which I hate, that once you've had a little bit of success, say you make a startup, you get to the end, you make a few monies, you kind of won in that particular game, then you're supposed to become an investor, angel investor, something in between."

"I invite a bunch of folks to come and convince me to not do it."

"If we do more of this, everybody's happy."


Chapters

00:00 Owning Your Own Data Set for Competitive Advantage

03:03 Misconception of Successful Entrepreneurs as Investors

09:46 Automating the Process of Creating Product Screenshots

13:34 The Role of AI in Increasing Productivity

25:30 Genuinely Hating a Problem

26:28 Challenging and Deconstructing Business Cases

31:56 Tracking and Measuring KPIs

36:18 Owning and Operating Proprietary Data Sets

43:30 The Future of User Interfaces and Voice-First Products

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