The Startup Ideas Podcast

I sit down with Riley Brown to get a hands-on tour of OpenAI's Codex, which he argues is the most powerful single interface for using AI agents today. Riley walks me through how Codex unifies vibe coding, knowledge work, browser use, computer use, and automations into one app, all running on GPT 5.5. I come in as a complete Codex skeptic who has spent most of my time in Claude Code, and Riley shows me skills, plugins, projects, Remotion, Chronicle, and the in-app browser to make his case. By the end, the question becomes whether the era of separate tools for documents, decks, code, and research is collapsing into a single super app.

00:00 – Intro

03:23 – What is Codex

06:46 – Why a GUI beats the terminal for most users

10:13 – Codex: the all in one platform

12:48 – Atlas browser inside Codex

14:21 – Remotion explained and motion graphics workflows

19:28 – Computer use and Chronicle

22:26 – Plugins, skills, MCPs, and integrations

31:57 – Evals, examples, and good outpu

38:43 – Hard questions: who Codex is built for

40:44 – Browser use plays itself in chess

43:20 – Running Claude Code inside Codex

45:58 – GPT 5.5 cost and effort settings

48:50 – GPT Images 2.0

54:09 – Why most people feel overwhelmed by AI tools

57:09 – Three projects to start with on day one and Closing thoughts

Key Points

Codex is positioned as a super app where coding, documents, decks, research, and automations live in one interface, with GPT 5.5 as the underlying model.

The trend across Codex, Cursor, and the Claude Code desktop app is the same GUI pattern: chats on the left, agent in the middle, output on the right.

Plugins offer official integrations like Slack, Notion, Sheets, Remotion, and Canva, while skills are user-created instructions stored as a SKILL.md file.

Computer use and browser use have crossed a speed threshold; the chess demo runs at near-human pace, a leap from earlier "dial-up" feeling agents.

Running Claude Code inside the Codex terminal lets you stack both subscriptions and use each model where it shines.

The biggest unlock for companies is collecting good examples of finished work so agents can match the bar.

The #1 tool to find startup ideas/trends - https://www.ideabrowser.com

LCA helps Fortune 500s and fast-growing startups build their future - from Warner Music to Fortnite to Dropbox. We turn 'what if' into reality with AI, apps, and next-gen products https://latecheckout.agency/

The Vibe Marketer - Resources for people into vibe marketing/marketing with AI: https://www.thevibemarketer.com/

FIND ME ON SOCIAL

X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/gregisenberg

Instagram: https://instagram.com/gregisenberg/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gisenberg/

FIND RILEY ON SOCIAL

X/Twitter: https://x.com/rileybrown

Vibe Code App: https://www.vibecodeapp.com

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@rileybrownai/videos

In this solo episode, I walk through ChatGPT Images 2.0 and show exactly how to use it to build creative assets that move a business forward, from brand visual directions to UI mockups to apparel mockups and editorial illustrations. I share the AI tool that surprised me this week (Noscroll), hand over a startup idea I want someone to steal (a learn-to-draw app with AI feedback on every sketch), and give you a five-step framework for finding and building a vertical AI business. I end with a Ralph Waldo Emerson quote that fired me up and a reminder to go conquer the day.

Timestamps

00:00 – Intro

01:21 – What's New in ChatGPT Images 2.0

03:14 – Best Use Cases for Images 2.0

15:15 – Top Tips for Asset Generation

17:10 – Tool of the Week: Noscroll

20:17 – Startup Idea: Learn-to-Draw App with AI Feedback

24:58 – Framework: How to Find a Vertical AI Business to Build

29:45 – Closing Thoughts and Emerson Quote

Key Points

ChatGPT Images 2.0 delivers 2K resolution, eight images per prompt, thinking mode with web search, and dramatically better text rendering across languages.

Specificity is the whole game with 2.0: dialed-in aesthetic, camera, lighting, palette, subjects, and output dimensions separate cinematic results from stock-looking ones.

Every business has four creative bottlenecks: marketing content, internal decks and training, visual explanation, and testing before building.

No Scroll is a glimpse into the future of AI agents: small, focused products that read the internet for you and text only what matters.

Vertical AI beats horizontal AI for reaching seven and eight figures in ARR because niche workflows plus proprietary data equal defensibility.

The Emerson mindset: own the day, finish it, forget the blunders, and begin tomorrow serenely.

The #1 tool to find startup ideas/trends - https://www.ideabrowser.com

LCA helps Fortune 500s and fast-growing startups build their future - from Warner Music to Fortnite to Dropbox. We turn 'what if' into reality with AI, apps, and next-gen products https://latecheckout.agency/

The Vibe Marketer - Resources for people into vibe marketing/marketing with AI: https://www.thevibemarketer.com/

FIND ME ON SOCIAL

X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/gregisenberg

Instagram: https://instagram.com/gregisenberg/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gisenberg/

I sit down with Imran Muthuvappa to get a hands-on walkthrough of Hermes Agent, a personal AI agent that ships with built-in memory, 40+ tools, and pre-installed skills out of the box. Imran walks me through why he migrated from OpenClaw, how to install Hermes on a Mac or even an Android phone via Termux, and how he cut his token spend by roughly 90% using OpenRouter. We get into agent design (one agent vs. multiple), connecting Hermes to Telegram and Obsidian, and the kinds of prompts that turn a personal agent into a daily operating system. By the end, I have a practical roadmap to install Hermes, pick a model, and start automating real parts of my life and business

Timestamps

00:00 – Intro

01:38 – Why Imran Left OpenClaw (Memory, Gateway, Tokens)

04:26 – Hermes Setup Tour and 40+ Built-In Tools

07:06 – Installing Hermes on Mac, Linux, and WSL

12:21 – Telegram and Android Agents

17:09 – Auditing Your Life With Your Agent

20:04 – Must-Know Hermes Tips: Updates, Tailscale, Telegram

21:07 – Should You Migrate From OpenClaw?

25:58 – Hermes + Obsidian as a Daily Dashboard

27:16 – Must-Use Prompts for a Personal Agent

31:29 – Must-Install Skills: Obsidian, Honcho Memory, G-Stack

33:04 – What G-Stack Is and Why It Matters

34:18 – Customization Is a Trap; Output Is the Skill

35:19 – Closing Thoughts

Key Points

Hermes Agent solves OpenClaw's three biggest pain points: built-in memory (writes to SQLite on successful tasks), gateway stability, and token visibility.

Installation is a single command on Mac, Linux, or WSL, and Hermes ships with 40+ tools and popular skills (Apple Notes, Reminders, iMessage, Find My) pre-installed.

Switching to Hermes with OpenRouter can cut token spend by roughly 90%, from about $130 per five days to around $10 per five days in Imran's case.

You can run Hermes on a cheap Android phone via Termux + Termux API, unlocking SMS, sensors, and on-device social posting as a cheap alternative to a Mac Mini.

The real skill is defaulting to your agent for work, then meta-prompting it nightly: "What am I procrastinating? What should I automate? What tool can you build me tonight?"

Imran recommends pairing Hermes with Obsidian for a clean daily dashboard and installing G-Stack (a Y Combinator-style startup skill from Gary Tan) if you are building a product.

The #1 tool to find startup ideas/trends - https://www.ideabrowser.com

LCA helps Fortune 500s and fast-growing startups build their future - from Warner Music to Fortnite to Dropbox. We turn 'what if' into reality with AI, apps, and next-gen products https://latecheckout.agency/

The Vibe Marketer - Resources for people into vibe marketing/marketing with AI: https://www.thevibemarketer.com/

FIND ME ON SOCIAL

X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/gregisenberg

Instagram: https://instagram.com/gregisenberg/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gisenberg/

FIND IMRAN ON SOCIAL

X/Twitter: https://x.com/imranye

Alif: https://alif.build

I go live and get my hands dirty with Claude Design, Anthropic's new design tool in research preview. Across roughly an hour, I run a real workflow end-to-end: pulling a product idea from Idea Browser, generating wireframes, iterating into visual designs, building a pitch deck, and attempting a 30-second video ad. I share my first reactions in real time and take feedback from the chat. By the end, I land on a clear verdict — best-in-class for wireframes and visuals, weaker for video — and give you a practical sense of where this tool fits in your workflow.

Timestamps

00:00 – Intro

00:50 – Claude Design walkthrough

03:48 – Picking a product idea from Idea Browser: Senior Brains

05:54 – Wire-framing Senior Brains

13:54 – Reacting to the generated wireframe

20:44 – Building a pitch deck for Senior Brains

30:39 – Reacting to a pitch deck

34:58 – Reacting to Hi-Fi wireframe

40:40 – Creating a 30-second animated video ad

48:58 – Reacting to animated video ad

58:10 – Final verdict and recommendations

Key Points

Claude Design's wireframing is the strongest capability I've seen in a design tool to date, especially the questionnaire that extrapolates like a product manager.

The pitch deck generation nails roughly 90% of the output with minimal input, which saves hours.

Visual design mockups come through clean and usable, ready to iterate with 30 minutes of back-and-forth.

Video generation lands at about a 5/10 — workable as a social post, weaker as a real commercial.

Start with wireframes first to conserve tokens and sharpen feature decisions before committing to high fidelity.

The #1 tool to find startup ideas/trends - https://www.ideabrowser.com

LCA helps Fortune 500s and fast-growing startups build their future - from Warner Music to Fortnite to Dropbox. We turn 'what if' into reality with AI, apps, and next-gen products https://latecheckout.agency/

The Vibe Marketer - Resources for people into vibe marketing/marketing with AI: https://www.thevibemarketer.com/

FIND ME ON SOCIAL

X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/gregisenberg

Instagram: https://instagram.com/gregisenberg/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gisenberg/

In this episode I sit down with my friend Sirio, one of the most creative AI minds I know, to break down Seedance V2. Sirio walks us through the exact use cases, prompts, and tactics he's using to build on top of this model inside his platform Enhancor, covering multi-input generation, virtual try-ons, ad translation, AI influencers with lip sync, video extension, and 3D product template replacement. I wanted this to go beyond the "look how cool this is" tutorials and focus on how creators and founders can actually build businesses, run ads, and produce creative assets with it. By the end, you'll have a practical playbook for Seedance V2 and a clear view of where it fits alongside other models like Kling 3, Veo, and fine-tuned options.

Timestamp

00:00 – Intro

02:22 – Demo 1: Replacing Characters and Background in a Green Screen Scene

08:03 – Prompting Tactics and Optimize Prompts

09:45 – Demo 2: Virtual Try-On in Montreal (Minus 30 Degrees)

13:05 – Demo 3: Ad Translation and Character Replacement (Chinese to English)

16:02 – Demo 4: 3D Product Template with Brand Texture Swap

18:40 – Demo 5: Video Extension and Filling in the Middle

20:55 – Demo 6: AI Influencers and Prompting Realistic Emotion

29:31 – What Happens to Adobe Over the Next Five Years

Key Points

Seedance V2 is the first widely available video model to support true multi-input generation — up to two images, two videos, and an audio file combined in a single prompt.

Treat Seedance V2 as a video editor, not just a generator: character swap, background swap, text preservation, ad translation, and template population all work from natural-language prompts.

Seedance rewards highly specific prompts; I pair my own draft with Claude Opus 4.6 to optimize prompts for vision models.

Strong source reference images remain the single biggest quality lever — the model mimics taste from what you feed it.

For AI influencers and lip sync, describe muscle movements and emotional transitions rather than simply labeling an emotion like "sad" or "happy."

Seedance V2 is the current default for editing and generating video, yet other models (Kling 3 for cinematic feel, Enhancer V4 for talking-head realism) still win on specific use cases.

The #1 tool to find startup ideas/trends - https://www.ideabrowser.com

LCA helps Fortune 500s and fast-growing startups build their future - from Warner Music to Fortnite to Dropbox. We turn 'what if' into reality with AI, apps, and next-gen products https://latecheckout.agency/

The Vibe Marketer - Resources for people into vibe marketing/marketing with AI: https://www.thevibemarketer.com/

FIND ME ON SOCIAL

X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/gregisenberg

Instagram: https://instagram.com/gregisenberg/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gisenberg/

FIND SIRIO ON SOCIAL

Enhancor AI: https://www.enhancor.ai

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heysirio/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@SirioBerati