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AI & Product Founder Notes

Everyone's using AI.
Nobody's transforming with it.

Partnering with CEOs and founders to build AI-native products and agents. Partnering with CEOs to build AI-native products and agents.

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The problem · 01

Companies are trying AI.
Most are stuck at Level 1–2.

AI-native companies aren't 20% more productive. They're unlocking 100× more capabilities.

Stuck
Level 01
Thought partner
Individuals ask AI for ideas and answers. One-off prompts, no workflow change.
Tool: ChatGPT tab
Most individuals
Level 02
Personal assistant
Individuals complete tasks faster. Time saved, but the org still runs the same way.
Tool: Copilot · 30% adoption
Real impact here
Level 03
Agent Teammates
Real work accelerates. New capabilities lift margins and grow revenue.
Tool: Team and workflow agents
The destination
Level 04
Agent Operating System
The org runs on agent intelligence. Company, teams and projects are connected.
Tool: Multi-agents in a system

The path from Level 2 to Level 3 is crossable in weeks, one function at a time.

Level 1–2, in one line

Companies deployed AI. They bought subscriptions.

30% ChatGPT & Copilot adoption 0 workflows changed 0 proven ROI Monthly committee, nothing shipped
Who I am · 02

I've operated at Level 3–4 for years.

John Tan
John Tan ↗
Founder · nativefirst.ai
Background
Ex-CEO, Depict (Y Combinator) · Operator
Source library
17 AI-native company playbooks
Daily stack
Claude Opus 5.5 Codex GPT-6 Astra Cursor Grok Bot gstack Lovable Granola Obsidian

I'm the ex-CEO of Depict (YC). The team went on to found Lovable, Legora, and Tandem Health. I run all work and my personal life on agents by default.

Shipped, then written down.

AI is moving fast.
Keep up.

Read the Playbook