Show Notes
I sit down with Elie Steinbock to unpack loop engineering and how to run a business on loops. We start with the roots of the idea in the lean startup and Toyota's manufacturing, then move into practical, copy-ready workflows for SEO, Facebook ads, and product feedback. Elie walks through a live Google Search Console example on Draft Fantasy and shows how to set up an SEO loop that runs once a month for years. The core promise for listeners: hand repeatable business work to an AI agent that measures an objective metric and improves over time. By the end, you know how loops work and how to launch your first one today. Timestamps 00:00 – Intro and episode promise 02:54 – What is Loop Engineering 06:51 – Loops with AI agents: build and verify 11:17 – Example of Loop: SEO as an objective-metric loop 15:29 – Setting up the SEO loop and tools 25:27 – Cost and token economics 29:05 – The Paid ads loop 33:10 – The product feedback loop 36:25 – A minimal viable loop for every channel 39:21 – Closing Thoughts Key Points Loop engineering means giving an agent a task, an objective metric, and a stop condition so it improves on a schedule. The lean startup and Toyota's build-measure-learn cycle map directly onto AI agents. An SEO loop connects to Google Search Console and Data for SEO, then pushes rankings up month over month. These loops run cheaply — often a few dollars per monthly run — which beats the cost of an agency. The same pattern extends to Facebook ads, and a product feedback loop stands as the ultimate version. Start small with a minimal viable loop tied to a clear metric like impressions or ten likes. Numbered Section Summaries The Promise of Running a Business on Loops I open by asking Elie what listeners will walk away with, and he frames the whole episode: use loops to automate SEO, ads, and more. We agree the aim is clear, copyable workflows people can launch today. Where Loop Engineering Comes From Elie traces the recent buzz to Boris from Claude Code and Peter Steinberger, plus a joking tweet from his friend Dimitro about software that builds itself. He grounds it in the lean startup's build-measure-learn cycle, which itself grew from Toyota's lean manufacturing. Loops With AI Agents: Build and Verify Elie explains the agent version: a build step paired with a verify step and a clear stop condition. He uses Inbox Zero's evals as an example, where the agent keeps adjusting the prompt or model until accuracy passes 90%. The SEO Loop We dig into SEO as the flagship example, where Google ranking serves as a clean, objective metric. Elie describes a loop that runs once a month, learns from the last run via a markdown memory file, and steadily climbs the rankings. Setting It Up on Real Data Elie shows his Draft Fantasy Search Console, connects the agent to Google Search Console and Data for SEO, and runs the loop live in Codex. He shares the Atom Eve prompt as a deeper template people can copy. Cost and Token Economics I raise Ross Mike's skepticism about loop buzz and token spend, and Elie makes the case that an SEO loop stays cheap — often under five dollars per monthly run. He adds that Max-plan users have plenty of headroom, while tight budgets suit cheaper open models like GLM 5.2. Ads, Product Feedback, and the Ultimate Loop We move to a Facebook ads loop that tests copy and creative variants, favoring a mix of human hooks and AI optimization. Then Elie describes the product feedback loop — reading customer feedback, analytics, and logs to prioritize and ship — as the closest thing to a business that builds itself. Starting Small We close on the minimal viable loop: begin with one channel and a modest, verifiable metric like impressions or ten likes, then let it compound. Elie and I agree that every part of a business could sit on a loop, and starting one today makes for a low-risk experiment. The #1 tool to find startup ideas/trends - https://www.ideabrowser.com LCA helps Fortune 500s and fast-growing startups build the
More from The Startup Ideas Podcast
In this solo episode, I break down the war on AI agents, from Amazon blocking Meta's Muse to Delta treating outside booking agents as unauthorized automated activity to Yelp charging agents for access. I share how I think about an agent, as a customer with a credit card who reads your site instead of looking at it, and the ladder of trust that runs from research to prepare to pay. Then I walk through each big player's bet, my nine stages for how this war plays out, five moves any business can make this week, and the startup ideas I see between agents and the businesses they buy from. If you run a store or build products, this episode gives you a map for selling to customers who send an agent to shop for them. Timestamps 00:00 – Intro 02:09 –The Three Camps 05:08 – How I Define an Agent 06:52 – The Ladder of Trust 08:54 – Real Reasons to Block Agents 09:48 – What Agents Skip 12:57 – How Each Company is Playing it 17:06 – Lessons From Mint and Plaid 17:49 – The 9 stages of The War on Agents 21:56 – What to do this week 24:39 – Startup Idea 1: Agent Readiness 25:48 – Startup Idea 2: Plaid for One Vertical 26:22 – Startup Idea 3: Insurance for Agents 26:57 – Startup Idea 4: Analytics for Agent Traffic 27:26 – Startup Idea 4: Agent Specialist 28:05 – Closing Thoughts Key Points Agents read product details, prices, shipping, and return policies, so plain-text facts on the page decide whether they pick you. Agents climb a ladder of trust from research to prepare to pay, and the whole fight happens on the pay rung. Many blocks protect the ad and upsell revenue that agents skip on the way to the sale. The biggest stores block, the biggest audiences open the door, and payment and security companies want the toll booth. I expect a Plaid moment for agent identity and payments, followed later by ads that buy an agent's first recommendation. Vertical Plaids, agent insurance, and agent analytics are open lanes for startups right now. 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/ FIND ME ON SOCIAL X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/gregisenberg Instagram: https://instagram.com/gregisenberg/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gisenberg/
Get Your Complete Financial OS at https://startup-ideas-pod.link/brex_SIP In this solo episode, I break down how to make money with Meta Muse by mining Facebook groups, Marketplace, and Instagram to match buyers with sellers. The idea came after my wife and I had a baby and the agency we hired for a night nurse admitted it found candidates in Facebook groups. I demo Muse finding night nurses at $30 an hour in Montreal, show how to give it a phone number through Bland AI, and share the Marketplace and Instagram tactics I'd use. I close with my four-level framework for growing a matching side business into a trusted list, a community, and a vertical software company. Timestamps 00:00 – Intro 01:19 – Sponsor: Brex 03:22 – Meta Muse 03:52 – Why this is a big opportunity 04:33 – Picking a Niche, City, and Rules 05:44 – Owning the asset and data 06:51 – Cleaning Data You Own 08:27 – Lessons From eBay 10:37 – A Phone Number With Bland AI 11:30 – Undervalued Facebook Groups 12:55 – Business Pages and IG Niche Pages 13:46 – Prompting Muse Into Facebook Groups 15:19 – Mining FB Marketplace and Instagram 17:20 – Four Levels of Personal Agent Arbitrage 20:38 – Results From Montreal Groups 21:40– Goods vs. Services 22:15 – Muse vs. Dots and Instinct 24:09 – Closing Thoughts Key Points Muse mines public Facebook groups, Marketplace, and Instagram to match buyers and sellers in any niche and city. A clean list of names, needs, prices, and trust signals is an asset I own and can sell later. Facebook groups, business pages, and IG niche pages look undervalued as Muse agents start crawling them. I tell Muse where to look, and Facebook groups gave me the highest quality data. My four levels: mine the data, own the list, own the room, then build technology. A lean cost structure lets me charge a success fee of a few hundred dollars and keep high margins. 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/ FIND ME ON SOCIAL X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/gregisenberg Instagram: https://instagram.com/gregisenberg/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gisenberg/
Gemini 4 Argon is LIVE, Google's most advanced AI model, try it for yourself: https://startup-ideas-pod.link/gemini4-argon In this solo episode, I share what I learned after a week with Gemini 4 Argon, Google's new frontier model. I show three places it shines: marketing with AI, physical AI, and complex engineering, with a real build for each. You'll see Argon rebuild my holding company's website, write a post in my voice, design a Shopify product customizer that exports STL files, and build a free quoting app for commercial cleaning companies. I close with six techniques that raise Argon's output quality and the Google AI plan I'd pick for building. Timestamps 00:00 – Intro 01:35 – What Gemini 4 Argon Does Well 03:09 – Rebuilding the Late Checkout Website 07:49 – Justine Moore's Apple Computer Museum 09:20 – Using Argon for writing 13:03 – Physical AI and Vibe Manufacturing 17:41 – Made-to-Order Shopify Store 19:01 – Building Boring SaaS 21:59 – Commercial Cleaning Quote App 25:12 – 6 techniques to get the most out of Argon 28:39 – Closing Thoughts Key Points Argon produces premium creative work once I give it reference images and a clear direction. A skill built from my posts, newsletters, and videos lets Argon write in my voice. Argon builds Shopify product customizers that export print-ready STL files. Free, focused rebuilds of boring legacy SaaS put me in front of likely buyers. Argon gets the engineering right on prompt one, and design takes a few more rounds. /plan, /subagents, and /goal give me the biggest jumps in output quality. 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/ FIND ME ON SOCIAL X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/gregisenberg Instagram: https://instagram.com/gregisenberg/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gisenberg/
In this solo episode, I walk through eight GitHub repos and AI skills that I test at night and on weekends. The list covers launch videos, social research, local voice and dubbing, editable decks, agent teams, lead-magnet tools, idea stress-testing, and design guidance. For each one, I explain what it does, how I'd set it up, and one concrete way to use it to make money or run a business more easily. Most are free to download, and you pay for the model you run them with. Timestamps 00:00 – Intro 01:25 – Brag: Launch Videos From a Link 04:50 – Agent Reach for Customer Research 07:46 – Voice Studio: Local AI Voice and Dubbing 10:41 – PPT Master: Editable Decks From Notes 12:59 – OpenRig: Coding Agents as a Team 14:57 – Free Tools Skill by Corey Haynes 17:25 – Grill Me Skill by Matt Pocock 19:31 – Impeccable: Design Guidance for Agents 23:03 – My Top Picks: Brag and Agent Reach 24:07 – Closing Thoughts GitHub Repo Links: Brag (launch video skill): https://startup-ideas-pod.link/brag Agent Reach: https://startup-ideas-pod.link/agent-reach Voice Studio: https://startup-ideas-pod.link/voice-studio PPT Master: https://startup-ideas-pod.link/ppt-master OpenRig: https://startup-ideas-pod.link/openrig Free Tool: https://startup-ideas-pod.link/marketing-skills Grill Me Skill: https://startup-ideas-pod.link/grill-me Impeccable Skill: https://startup-ideas-pod.link/impeccable Key Points Most of these tools are free to download, and the main cost is the model you run them with. Work I do for someone up front, like a launch video or a design fix, starts a conversation in place of a cold email. Posts on Reddit, X, and YouTube show tasks people still do by hand, and a small tool can fix them. Translated onboarding videos make a recurring monthly service for other companies. Grill Me logs my assumptions so I check them with a real customer before I build. Ten clients at $1,000 a month is $10,000 a month, and that cash flow funds the move from services to technology. 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/ FIND ME ON SOCIAL X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/gregisenberg Instagram: https://instagram.com/gregisenberg/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gisenberg/
In this solo episode, I walk through the 13 businesses I think are left to build in the agentic era. I believe that in a world of agents and abundance, owning the right assets puts you in a better position. For each business, I explain what it is, why it holds up in a world of agents, and one or two examples, from Othership's sauna clubs to Osmo's window-cleaning robots. This episode gives you a map of where to build next, at any age. Timestamps 00:00 – Intro 01:15 – AI-Native Service Firms 02:57 – Offline Businesses 05:41 – Distribution and Organic Audiences 07:34 – Proprietary Data Sets 09:08 – Domain-Specific Harnesses 12:16 – Robotics and Physical AI 14:01 – Physical Products With a Fan Following 16:34 – Compute and Energy 17:31 – Health, Longevity, and Care 19:30 – Marketplaces and Social Networks 21:04 – Real Assets 21:46 – Vertical Agents 22:18 – Security 24:08 – Closing Thoughts Key Points In an AI-native service firm, agents do most of the delivery and a human reviews the exceptions. Ad clicks went from about five cents in 2009 to $1–5 today, so I start with organic audiences. Proprietary data and domain-specific harnesses are the two gold rushes I see right now. Offline businesses, niche hardware, and robotics sell rooms, objects, and labor that agents only support. Compute, energy, and security are the scarce inputs every agent depends on. 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/ FIND ME ON SOCIAL X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/gregisenberg Instagram: https://instagram.com/gregisenberg/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gisenberg/