Show Notes
Most founders are still thinking about AI as a faster way to do their work. But that is not what is happening anymore. AI agents do not help you do the task. They do the task for you. And if you have not started asking which roles in your business actually need a human, you are already behind.
Here is the thing: this is not a big tech problem or a future problem. Small and medium sized businesses are rebuilding their teams around this right now, and the ones doing it well are not replacing people for the sake of it. They are freeing up their human team to focus on the things that actually require judgment.
In this episode, I break down what AI agents actually are, how we are using them at Foundr across customer support, lead qualification and ad optimisation, and the practical first steps any e-commerce founder can take today.
Here's what you'll take away:
Why AI agents and AI tools are completely different things, and why that distinction changes how you think about hiring
How one founder cut his team from 48 to 30 people, replaced four software subscriptions, and saved $250,000 a year without losing any revenue
How Klarna deployed a single AI agent to do the work of 700 customer service reps
The repeatable, process-driven roles in every e-commerce business where agents are already outperforming humans
Where to start if you are a solo founder or small team: the customer support use case that pays off fastest
The one question to ask before every single hire from this point forward
If you are growing your team right now or thinking about your next hire, this episode will completely change how you evaluate that decision and what a lean, high-output operation can actually look like in 2026.
If you're loving this solo series, I'd love to hear your feedback. Email me directly at [email protected] — I read every reply. Hope you enjoy it.
WANT TO GROW YOUR BRAND WITH META ADS? Join the Foundr Operators Waitlist → https://foundr.com/operators
HOW WE CAN HELP YOU SCALE YOUR BUSINESS FASTER
Learn directly from 7, 8 & 9-figure founders inside Foundr+
Start your $1 trial → https://www.foundr.com/startdollartrial
PREFER A CUSTOM ROADMAP AND 1-ON-1 COACHING?
→ Starting from scratch? Apply here → https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-start-application
→ Already have a store? Apply here → https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-growth-application
CONNECT WITH NATHAN CHAN
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/nathanchan
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanhchan/
FOLLOW FOUNDR FOR MORE BUSINESS GROWTH STRATEGIES
YouTube → https://bit.ly/2uyvzdt
Website → https://www.foundr.com
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/foundr/
Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/foundr
Twitter → https://www.twitter.com/foundr
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/company/foundr/
Podcast → https://www.foundr.com/podcast
More from The Foundr Podcast with Nathan Chan
Lukas Pakter filmed his bank account and posted it to the internet: $80,000 in debt, $100 to his name, an activewear brand quietly dying. A year and a half later he’s doing over $250,000 a day, on track for $70-80 million this year, and has turned his growth playbook into Tribe - a creator-sales platform now used by over 16,000 brands. The shift that changed everything was a single realisation: making other people money makes you more money. Instead of being the one guy filming TikTok Shop videos, he turned his best customers into an army of sellers - and built the software to run it.
I do a lot of enrollment calls for Foundr Operators, and I keep seeing the same pattern. A founder gets on a call doing a 5 or 6x return, literally printing money, and they will not scale. They are terrified to spend more. And if I had understood the principle behind this ten years ago, I would have made tens of millions of dollars more. That is a big claim, so hear me out.
Three best friends put in $250 each - $750 total - printed 100 hats in a garage, and sold out in 36 hours. No following. No ads. No business plan. Four and a half years later, Dad Gang has done over $40 million in revenue selling hats built around one idea: dads deserve better than goofy, frumpy products that make fatherhood a punchline. The craziest part? Grant, Bart and Ejay still run the entire thing with zero employees, a private Facebook group of 15,000 dads, and an equity partnership with Gary Vaynerchuk - and they're deliberately building it as a lifestyle business, not a rocket ship.
Ryan Thompson ran a restaurant for 25 years, sold a couple of quick-serve spots, built a financial services company, and even ran a motel before he noticed the craft distillery movement taking off and decided someone in Vail, Colorado ought to start one - so it might as well be him. He went to Moonshine University in Kentucky, learned distilling from A to Z, wrote a business plan, and scraped together every dollar he could. Thirteen years later, 10th Mountain Whiskey & Spirit Company makes seven spirits, runs two tasting rooms, and donates to military nonprofits - named in honour of the historic 10th Mountain Division that helped start American skiing (and, as it happens, Nike).
Hiring is tough, and I am not going to pretend otherwise. But I was reflecting on this past year, and I have had a much better strike rate lately because of one basic shift. And sometimes it is the basic stuff that is easiest to forget.