WEBVTT

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Alex Harmson, PortfolioPilot .com. You have quite

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the story and background. I look forward to getting

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into that. Before we do that, though, let's go

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into the future. Tell me about your vision. I

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think the single biggest thing, obviously, these

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days is AI. And whether it's overhyped or not,

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I think that a lot of people are talking about

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the wrong stuff when it comes to AI. I think

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that most folks talk about how AI can be used

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to troll through tons of data and pull out interesting

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insights. Absolutely true, right? But I don't

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think that's the big thing. I think a lot of

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people talk about ASI and super intelligence

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or creating the nanobots or how does it replace

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jobs? I think the main benefit that comes from

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AI is more around... personalization and bringing

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experts advice, bringing experts knowledge, wisdom

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to your specific situation. There's actually

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something really interesting. I like to think

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that this podcast is going to be really cool,

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really informative. The audience really got something

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from it. What my guess is if it was you, me,

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and one listener in the audience, you know, specifically

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talking about their story, the podcast would

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be 10 times more interesting. But if we can dive

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deep into this one very specific audience members

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situation and connect everything we're saying

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to their life, then it becomes even more powerful.

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And so I think you can do that with AI and there's

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this level of personalization. I think it fits

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into this. I'm so down to invite somebody. If

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you're up for it, I'd be happy to invite an audience

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member to come in and do that with us. I love

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that too. I'm totally down for that. I'm planning

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on that then. I'm perfectly happy to share all

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my stories and what worked and what didn't work

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and the highs and the lows. I mean, at the end

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of the day, imagine if you're listening that

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you somehow want to connect it through to something

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in your life or double click on an issue that's

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actually really interesting to you or skip this

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part. That's not really relevant. I know those

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things already. Fast forward to the stuff, the

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real unique stuff for me. Oh, we'll do that.

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I'll be happy to because that allows people to

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see the magic. And people want to see the magic.

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I downplay the magic because I'm principle driven.

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And so I love that you started by just establishing

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a base. People need to understand that base in

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order to be able to take responsible action on

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what it is that you're talking about. So I'll

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do some things on my end as a host for whichever

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visionary wants to come in and have that experience

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with us. We'll pick somebody who we know we can

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put in a safe place as well. on that stage and

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then we'll be able to dive in with them on some

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specifics in a controlled environment where we

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can then help them unlock a new level of how

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ai would be used i have a feeling that's going

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to influence me in a way where i'm like oh i

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didn't think about doing that or i haven't thought

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about using it that way and that's going to also

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help me so those of you listening in these are

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types of experiments too that with all sense

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of safety um right you can do in your own podcast,

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in your own lives. Start playing with these tools

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in a way where you can start to learn the power

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of this resource. We're not going to dive too

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far into that. I want to dive into one more piece

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for today, Alex, and respect both of our times

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on this. Where did your vision come from? What

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led you to this point where you started to see

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the value? Everybody's now claiming that they

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see it, but you have, let me give a little context

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for the audience here because I was shocked.

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I was like, dang, this is deep. So Alex is a

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tech entrepreneur who's passionate about AI finance

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and autonomy, right? Who hasn't heard that lately?

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But he founded PortfolioPilot .com and it's an

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AI financial advisor with over $30 billion in

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assets on platform. i hope you provide me like

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a resource link on that alex so i can i can fact

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check that um before that he already founded

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and sold iris automation advancing ai and autonomy

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and even worked on nasa's mars helicopter um

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he's built and scaled ai driven companies raised

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over 30 million in venture capital and went through

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y combinator just as my first startup did um

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he's recognized by forbes 30 under 30. um loves

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discussing startups like all of that's like oh

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okay I don't meet you every day. You know, I

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don't meet somebody with those accolades every

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day. Yet you're also a genuine individual. Again,

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the brief version, let's go to the big version

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later. But what, where did the vision come from?

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I think there's two things. One thing is just,

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I like to think genuine curiosity. I think there's

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a selfishness actually to wanting to ask questions

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and learn constantly and like, I'm building startups,

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working on co -projects, helping people. I get

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to meet really interesting people. I get to work

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on something that teaches me something new. I

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get bored very easily. So the role I have right

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now in a fast -growing startup as the CEO, basically

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every six months my job is different. And so

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I get deep going. I think the second part is

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after I sold my previous company, Iris Automation,

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in 2021, I was looking for real expert financial

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advice just from my own situation. The first

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time that I have any sort of liquidity, we bought

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a house in the Bay Area. We started a family.

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We have two toddlers now. My wife runs a startup

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in the biotech space. I was talking to financial

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advisors and wealth managers and private bankers

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and ended up on some list at some point. And

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lots of people that... calling me but it sort

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of felt like i was talking to a lot of sales

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people they weren't really experts that were

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going to sit down with me and just really dive

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into my specific situation and so i built something

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for myself and you know i had a lot of time and

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it was sort of coveted i had this baby on the

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side and was sort of just tinkering and at the

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end of the day just built something for myself

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for my own situation that eventually, now three

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and a half years later, turned into portfolio

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pilot, this AI financial advisor. And didn't

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really call it an AI financial advisor on the

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first month or two. It was just this engine that

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I could attach to my life and my finances and

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all of my settings and preferences, a long -term

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or short -term goals and tax situation. And then

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it would spend six hours very slowly, very inefficiently,

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just sort of searching through this set of rules

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and look at markets and run a bunch of calculations

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to try to figure out, you know, what can I optimize

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about my situation? And then I think after four

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or five months, it worked well enough. I started

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talking to other people about it and like that

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personal project. that you know solved a specific

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need for me has now turned into 30 000 users

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and 30 billion dollars of assets on the platform

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and keeps growing you know every week Thank you

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for being here today. I'm really happy that you

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tuned in to Vision Pros Live. I'm looking forward

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to seeing your reactions as these episodes continue

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to move forward. This is going to get more and

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more fun. We'll have more and more engagement

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as well. We'll invite people to participate in

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the show and thank you for giving us your time

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and attention. Have an excellent time building

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out your vision and becoming a vision pro yourself.